Thousands of scans were re-examined

The findings were in a report into the assessments of nearly 8,000 women seen at Belfast's City Hospital, Antrim Area Hospital and Altnagelvin.

The report found 14 women had been misdiagnosed, the other four cases were discovered before the review began.

Mina Braniff, who was recalled after being screened at Antrim, said women "would not be reassured" by the news.

"In this day and age, you should be able to go to the hospital and be diagnosed, but that just didn't happen with these 18 women," she said.

"I'm only of the lucky ones, I'm in the clear, but I've heard people say it was only 14 or 18 women out of 8,000. That is 14 too many."

The radiologist has been suspended until the full circumstances of what happened have been fully resolved.

Health Minister Shaun Woodward said all of the women have undergone surgery where appropriate, and are receiving follow-up treatment as required.

"On behalf of the health service, I want to apologise for any mistakes that have been made and for the distress caused to those women who had cancers detected," he said.

"Individual reports about the circumstances of their case will be made available to all of the women affected by the end of February."

On behalf of the health service, I want to apologise for any mistakes that have been made Shaun Woodward Health Minister

Bernard Mitchell, chief executive of Antrim Area Hospital, said they were "deeply sorry" for the mistake.

"All of the staff in the breast unit of Antrim Area Hospital and myself are deeply sorry for the impact of this situation on all of these women and their families," he said.

"From our point of view, what we have tried to do is respond quickly to their concerns, arrange for diagnosis and further treatment, if that is required, and to be as honest as possible."

The government announced in November that there was a query over the quality of the work done by a radiologist, who had examined the mammograms of thousands of women.

In total the review - headed by Dr Robin Wilson, director of Breast Screening Quality Assurance, East Midlands - looked at 7,500 cases.

Of those 400 were called back for another mammogram, and 14 were found to have breast cancer that had not been picked up when they were initially screened.

The review found "clear evidence of sub-standard care" which had led to "significant and avoidable delays" in the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Doctor Wilson said part of the problem was how to deal with a shortage of radiologists.

"There is no quick fix," he said.

"Throughout the UK over the last five years we have been training up non-radiologists to do things that radiologists would normally have done in the past.

"We are training up all sorts of other people to read the film, but making sure that they have the appropriate training and the appropriate skills before they start participating in the process."