Cutbacks may delay extension of breast screening programme

FEARS have been raised that cutbacks in health budgets will delay the planned nationwide extension of the national breast screening programme, BreastCheck, next year.

Cancer organisations have expressed concern that government pressure to slash health expenditure will adversely affect the programme designed to reduce high breast cancer rates.

BreastCheck has recently submitted a business plan to the Department of Health seeking funding for a major expansion of its services in 2003.

Concern that the full implementation of the programme could be hit by delays comes as a new study shows that women screened for breast cancer are less likely to have a mastectomy.

Research published in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal found fewer Italian women have had a breast removed since a screening programme was introduced there in 1990.

Earlier conflicting studies about the benefits of screening suggested such programmes could increase the number of mastectomies due to false alarms and unnecessary surgery.

In Ireland, BreastCheck is only available to women aged 50-64 in the Eastern Regional Health Authority, Midland Health Board and North Eastern Health Board areas. More than 54,600 women in that age group have been screened for breast cancer since the programme was introduced in February 2000.

It has resulted in the detection of cancer in 487 women - almost nine cases per 1,000.

“We are concerned that the expansion of the screening programme might be affected by cutbacks in the health service, especially as BreastCheck is playing such a vital part in early detection of breast cancer,” said Deirdre O’Connell of breast cancer awareness group Europa Donna Ireland.

She claimed there were reports of serious delays for women in health board areas outside the BreastCheck area getting the results of mammograms.

“It highlights the need for implementing the programme on a nationwide basis as soon as possible as BreastCheck provides mammogram results within three weeks,” said Ms O’Connell.

The Irish Cancer Society also called for the urgent expansion of the screening to all health board areas.

“It should be done as soon as possible because clearly the pilot programme has been extremely effective. But we would advise all women in that age category to get screening regardless of their geographical area,” said ICS spokesperson Abby Langtry.

However, a Department of Health spokesperson said no decision had been made yet on whether funding would be provided for an extension of BreastCheck next year.

“It will be considered in the context of preparing the estimates for 2003,” he said. A total of 8.7m euro has been spent on the project. Recent instructions by Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy to departments to curtail spending, however, makes it unlikely that plans to extend the screening programme to women over 65 will be considered at this stage.

Ireland has the highest mortality rate from breast cancer in the EU. About 650 Irish women die from the disease each year with 1,500 new cases detected on average in a 12-month period.

BreastCheck has set itself a target of reducing the number of such deaths by 20%.