Breast cancer screening promises broken, says group

THE Government has abandoned its Women’s Health Plan which was launched six years ago, the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA) said yesterday.

ICA president Anne Murray said the Government had promised a national breast and cervical cancer screening programme for women, and better maternity, family planning, and counselling services.

Ms Murray will tell more than 500 delegates at its council meeting in Galway today, that the deadline for delivering a national breast cancer screening service keeps being moved forward.

“The Minister for Health keeps promising this service will be delivered down the road. If this was a man's problem it would have been implemented long ago,” Murray said.

The ICA has done its part to fight breast cancer by raising over €750,000 for the National Breast Cancer Research Institute (NBCRI). But the regional breast screening services promised by the Women’s Health Plan, and the local services that the ICA has campaigned for have not been delivered, she said.

The Hanly report on medical manpower is recommending that all these services be delivered in fewer centres of excellence. “Long journeys to these centres will be both very distressing, and difficult for many women living in rural areas to organise, because of poor transport and isolation,” said Murray.

If the Government is serious about enhancing cancer care it must provide free transport for patients travelling for treatment, and adequate family support, she said. Murray wants Health Minister Micheal Martin to spell out how these new centres of excellence will provide cancer care for women before they are built.

But a Department of Health spokesman rejected the claim the Government had abandoned the Women's Health Plan launched in 1997.

He said a national breast screening programme has been set up for women between 50 and 64, and the Minister has promised it will be implemented nationwide by 2005, if Exchequer funding continues to be provided.

Plans for a national cervical cancer screening programme are included in the National Health Strategy, the department spokesman said, but he could not say if the funding would be guaranteed.

Health boards already supply free transport for certain patients and this may apply to breast cancer patients when the Hanly report is implemented nationwide, he said.