McGraw-Hill first to offer BreastHealth UK corporate package

McGraw-Hill is the first company to offer a BreastHealth UK clinic onsite for its staff. Employees and their partners are able to have a BreastCheck consultation without a GP referral. It includes training in self-examination that has been well received by the women that have taken part.

Sarah MacKenzie, Director of Corporate Human Resources, with McGraw-Hill which includes the market leading rating agency Standard and Poor’s amongst its businesses. The company employs over 1200 people, 47 percent of them are female. She explains that BreastCheck is a recent addition to their portfolio of health benefits.

“Breast Check Essentials is an addition to our on-site medical screening services. The ability for staff to do this through salary exchange makes this an affordable and convenient specific health choice for our staff and their partners.

“76 percent of our female staff are under 40 so too young for the National Breast Screening Programme. We decided to include BreastCheck to help women look after their health.

“The check up takes about 20 minutes on our premises so it is very convenient for everyone. It is completely confidential and has been very well received, I have had excellent positive comments and staff have felt it very worthwhile. This has proved to be a welcome addition and cost-effective benefit for our staff .”

Dawn Chapman MBE, Nurse Consultant from BreastHealth UK, has helped to design and deliver the service.

“I see my job as reassuring the worried well. Often women are concerned about their health, perhaps because of something they have read, and they don’t like to bother a health professional with their worries. BreastCheck enables these women to self-refer and they are usually comforted and relieved after the consultation.”

BreastCheck includes: a Breast Health Cancer Risk Assessment, which looks at medical history, family and lifestyle factors; a clinical breast examination by an experienced nurse and training in how to self-exam. It is recommended for all women to check their breasts regularly but few know how to do this properly. Around 90% of all breast cancers are identified by patients themselves.

BreastHealth UK was set up by Professor Gordon Wishart, a distinguished Breast Consultant who has pioneered many new approaches in the screening and treatment of breast care. He established the first guidelines and training for nurses in Breast Health and has developed PREDICT, a new survival prediction model, that for the first time allows breast surgeons to use UK data to determine the potential benefit of additional treatment following surgery.

He established BreastHealth UK because he believes that women should have greater access to the latest screening technologies that are widely used in other countries.

BreastHealth UK Director Troels Jordansen comments that although many companies are operating a salary freeze, benefits in kind are gaining in popularity as a means of rewarding staff without increasing the salary burden.

“Although breast cancer risk is strongly related to age, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women under 35 and a cause of concern for many members of staff and their partners. By offering breast screening as part of a benefits package, employers can make it accessible to a wide range of women without increasing their wages bill.”

BreastHealth UK is offering a range of tailored corporate packages, which include options for screening on the employer’s site through to attendance at one of the BreastHealth UK Clinics. If the screening reveals anything abnormal, the patient is advised to make an appointment with their GP and can then be treated either by the NHS or privately.