Expenses and consultants cost cancer screening service €2m

THE National Cancer Screening Service spent more than €2 million on office expenses, travel and transport and consultancy fees in 2007, according to its first annual report.

Published at the end of 2008, the report outlines expenses and wages for the service, which provides screening for the early diagnosis and primary treatment of breast cancer and cervical cancer in women.

Established in January 2007, the report reveals more than e400,000 was paid out on consultancy fees, more than e1.1m on office expenses and e2.3m on advertising and promotion.

Under ‘non-pay revenue costs’, the report also showed almost e3m was spent on ‘maintenance’ costs and almost e700,000 on recruitment.

The average number of employees during the year was 175, and according to the report, they were paid e11.3m between them.

Management and administration were paid e4,814,684, followed by consultants, who were paid just over e4m.

Other costs included almost e8m on rent for facilities in Cork and Galway, more than e1m for a head office leasehold and almost e300,000 on furniture and fittings.

According to the report, at the time of publication, screening is either complete or has been commenced in more than half of the western and southern counties, with the remainder to follow shortly.

Screening of eligible women has been completed in Co Roscommon and has been introduced to Cork, Galway, Limerick, Mayo, Tipperary North, Tipperary South and Waterford, it said.

The board’s breast screening services operate from four locations: the Merrion Unit at St Vincent’s University Hospital Dublin; the Eccles Street Unit at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Dublin; the Southern Unit at South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, Cork, and the Western Unit at University College Hospital, Galway.

The report states that a fleet of eight mobile digital screening units have been commissioned to provide screening in broader counties.

Four units will be attached to the BreastCheck Southern Unit, serving women in Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford and Tipperary South and four will be attached to the BreastCheck Western Unit, providing screening to women in Clare, Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo and Tipperary North.

In line with best international practice, the report says, screening will be provided every three years to women aged 25 to 44 and then, once a woman has had two consecutive ‘no abnormality detected’ results, every five years between the ages of 45 and 60.

Up to 1,000 women a day are availing of free cervical screening since the state scheme began in September.