A Fianna Fáil Galway senator has said two years is far too long for the women of the west of Ireland to have to wait for breast screening.
Senator Margaret Cox said yesterday the announcement of €20 million to advance the national roll-out of the BreastCheck programme was to be welcomed, but she called on the Minister for Health and the Western Health Board to fast-track the project. Senator Cox said cancer was responsible for more than half the deaths of women aged between 30 and 60 in the board's region, where breast cancer was the second most common form of cancer.
Under the national expansion of BreastCheck, breast screening and treatment which are currently available in the eastern region to women in the 50 to 64 age group will finally become available in the southern and western regions.
The Minister has approved the establishment of a design team to advance the implementation of the programme in Galway and Cork.
The BreastCheck clinical unit in the west will be located at University College Hospital Galway, with two associated mobile units. There are about 58,000 women in the target population who will be invited to screening in the western region.
Meanwhile, the Western Health Board has held talks with the Department of Health and Children seeking funding to allow for the commissioning of new units at University College Hospital.
A number of new units at the hospital, including the radiotherapy, Intensive Care Unit and trauma and burns unit, which are already built have either been unable to open or only able to open partially because of the lack of funding.
