Department to spend €60,000 on Breastcheck review

The Department of Health is to spend up to €60,000 in a bid to identify efficiencies in a value-for-money review on the State’s rollout of Breastcheck.

Over the past 11 years, Breastcheck has detected 5,071 breast cancers by providing 826,210 free mammograms to 368,851 women.

A spokeswoman for the National Cancer Screening Service said the most recent report showed that for women invited for Breastcheck screening during 2010, the overall acceptance rate to screening was 73.9% with free mammograms provided to 120,730 women and 814 breast cancers detected.