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.

As part of the Programme for Government, one of the Government’s objectives is to extend Breastcheck to women aged 65 to 69. To date, the programme has been focused on women aged 50 to 64.

However, a previous report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) found that the unit cost of breast screening in Ireland appeared high compared with other European countries such as the Netherlands and England.

HIQA recommended that a detailed analysis of the systems be carried out to identify cost savings here. The Department of Health is seeking consultants to carry out the value-for-money review before the rollout of the service to women aged 65 to 69 can begin.

Department documentation does not provide a commitment as to when the scheme extension will take place and only states “it is intended to extend the programme when resources become available”.

It states: “Therefore, to that end, it is critical that any potential savings in the current service are realised”.

The Department’s document confirms that 127,000 women were screened last year, a significant increase on the numbers screened in any of the four preceding years. About €80.8m was spent on Breatcheck between 2007 and 2010. The department’s tender documentation states that a budget of €50,000 to €60,000 has been identified for the review.

There are four static units providing Breastcheck, along with 16 mobile units.

A spokeswoman for the National Cancer Screening Service, which administers Breastcheck, said yesterday that the service was “supportive of the Department of Health’s intended review of the BreastCheck model, particularly in light of the objective of extending the age range to women aged 65-69 years as outlined in the Programme for Government”.