Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 6 Mar 2003

Vol. 562 No. 6

Written Answers - Cancer Screening Programme.

Denis Naughten

Ceist:

14 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Health and Children if he intends taking up the offer of the private clinic in Galway to provide breast screening services by the year end; and the reason such a service should be provided privately within ten months and the national BreastCheck service could not provide it for another 22 months, even assuming funding was available. [6682/03]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

My Department has consulted in relation to the offer by a private clinic referred to by the Deputy. BreastCheck's position is that involvement of the clinic in the provision of breast screening services is not practicable for a number of reasons: the availability of a single mammogram machine at the private clinic provides no basis for the provision of a population based programme; and the facility that the private clinic has available is digital mammography. BreastCheck does not currently use digital mammography as it regards it to be, as yet, unproven technology in the context of population based screening.

The national breast screening programme commenced in March 2000 with its first phase covering the ERHA, Midland Health Board and North Eastern Health Board areas. Screening is being offered free of charge to all women in those areas in the target age group 50 to 64 years of age. The target population consists of approximately 140,000 women and represents about 50% of the national target population. By end December 2002, 110,636 women had been called for screening and 83,000 women had been screened. This represents an uptake of 75%.

I am committed to the national extension of BreastCheck. As evidence of that commitment I recently announced the extension of BreastCheck to a further three counties. Approximately 19,000 women in the 50-64 age bracket in Counties Wexford, Kilkenny and Carlow will be invited for screening. Approximately 9,500 per annum will be invited once the programme is fully operational in these counties. It is expected that approximately 60 additional cancers will be diagnosed and treated annually.

In relation to the further expansion of the programme, BreastCheck's board has submitted a business plan to my Department. A number of key issues have been raised by health boards and health professionals in relation to the national roll-out of BreastCheck which need to be addressed in advance of further expansion. I will meet BreastCheck shortly to discuss these issues.

Any woman, irrespective of her age or residence, who has immediate concerns or symptoms should contact her GP who, where appropriate, will refer her to the symptomatic services in her area.