Up to 65 women dying each year over breast screening failure

AROUND 65 women are dying from breast cancer each year because the Government has failed to fully implement a national screening programme, it was claimed yesterday.

Opposition leaders, doctors and hospital executives last night criticised the five-year delay in offering such a service in the south and west.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among Irishwomen with up to 650 deaths a year. The screening programme, BreastCheck, which has been running in Dublin, the midlands and northeast for five years, aims to cut these deaths by 20%.