Bureaucracy smokescreen costing lives

SCIENTISTS do not know what actually causes cancer, nor have they yet found an actual cure, but they have long known that early detection provides the best hope of survival for women with breast cancer, which is the second most prevalent form of the disease among women.

Screening is the most effective method of early detection, but politicians and bureaucrats persist in playing a deadly waiting game with women and their families in the south and west of Ireland.

The BreastCheck programme was announced and introduced in Dublin before the turn of the century. It was supposed to be the start of a roll-out programme for the whole country.