Increasing numbers of women are undergoing breast surgery at a Birmingham hospital following improved detection rates for breast cancer, and a growing number are opting for risk-reducing operations due to family history.

Referrals to the breast reconstruction service at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) have been steadily growing over the past five years, with cases being sent from all over the West Midlands.

The volume of outpatient referrals from GPs and elsewhere to the Trust for breast surgery has soared in recent years, from just 36 in 2006/07 to 695 in 2010/11.

At the same time, the total number of outpatient referrals to breast services and breast surgery has increased from 3,043 in 2006/07 to 3,675 in the last 12 months.

Breast cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK, with more than 45,000 new cases diagnosed each year, while women have a 1 in 8 risk of developing the disease in their lifetime.

UHB Divisional Director Dr Prem Mahendra said the Trust’s breast reconstruction service offers patients surgery following mastectomy, usually following treatment for breast cancer.

“However,” she added, “it is increasingly being provided as a result of risk-reducing mastectomy where there has been a history of breast cancer in the family.”

Dr Mahendra said the breast reconstruction surgeons at UHB have established a “high reputation” for the quality of their work.

“Referrals to the service have steadily increased over the last five years as a result of increasing market share in the north of Birmingham, because of increased detection and because of new awareness about the benefits of risk-reducing surgery.”

The breast reconstruction service is now looking to expand to help reduce waiting times for people requiring plastic surgery, with the appointment of a new plastic surgeon and consultant anaesthetist.

The Trust currently employs three plastic surgeons with a specialist interest in breast reconstruction work, and has also been employing a locum consultant to carry out additional cases to help maintain the waiting list.

Dr Mahendra said: “Maintaining the service within the NHS waiting times is currently very challenging and regular operating lists are being carried out at the weekends. Occasional patients have been treated in the private sector.”

She said that a new plastic surgeon would provide sufficient capacity to remove the need for out-of-hours work, absorb the work of the locum consultant, and reduce waiting times for breast reconstruction.