JUST over five months ago, the British Government’s then Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, admitted in the House of Commons that a computer algorithm failure, dating back to 2009, had meant that an estimated 450,000 women in England had missed crucial breast cancer screenings.

He acknowledged that lives had been lost as a consequence. It was difficult to be precise, because estimates were based not on patient reviews but on statistical modelling, but it was possible that up to 270 women had had their lives cut short.

The Scottish Government responded by saying that there were no comparable problems with Scotland’s system of inviting women for final breast-cancer checks. It now emerges that, actually, there were. No fewer than 1,761 women aged over 71 are to be contacted after a review found that they had not be given a screening appointment over the past three years.

Scotland’s Health Secretary, Jeane Freeman, the successor to Shona Robison, who made that assurance, apologises for the “distress” that the oversight has caused. Files are now to be checked manually after issues were detected with the computerised invitation system. Breast-cancer charities north of the Border speak of their shock that an IT error should go un-noticed for three years.

Several key points are worth stating. As the charities readily say, women should not be unduly panicked by the news. Screening, they point out, is a choice. Harm can arise from false positives and from over-treatment, where women receive surgery for cancer that was picked up in screening but would never have become dangerous anyway. And the numbers affected in Scotland are relatively small compared with England, though of course one personal misfortune is one too many.

It is encouraging that the IT problem has been addressed publicly. But what about other cancer-screening services, such as those for cervical cancer? Labour asks whether there are additional diagnostic screening failures in the NHS. Swift reassurances from Ms Freeman ought to be a priority.

The apparent complacency behind Ms Robison’s statement – that the algorithm issue “does not affect the NHS in Scotland” – stirs unease. With, admittedly, the benefit of hindsight, it seems inarguable that she ought to have waited longer so as to be absolutely sure that there were no problems with breast-screening programme records or IT systems.

To have insisted that all was well was to give a hostage to fortune – something the SNP Government can ill afford given the relentless scrutiny that its performance is subject to. But spare a thought for Ms Freeman, who seems to spend much of her time mopping up her predecessor’s mistakes.