Vol. 549 No. 2
93 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Health and Children the progress on the national breast screening programme; if the programme is running behind target; if he will examine the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 5; and if an appointment can be arranged for this person. [6159/02]
100 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children his proposals to extend the BreastCheck programme nationwide; and when he proposes to introduce the nationwide programme. [6169/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 93 and 100 together.
BreastCheck, the national breast screening programme, commenced in March 2000 with phase one of the programme covering the Eastern Regional Health Authority, Midland Health Board and North-Eastern Health Board. Screening is being offered free of charge to all women in those areas in the target age group, 50 to 64 years. To date, over 50,000 women have been called for screening and over 34,000 women have been screened. This represents an uptake of 70%. It is anticipated that phase one of the programme will be completed by December 2002, as originally intended.
It is essential that the programme is driven by international quality assurance and best practice and the experience gained in phase one will facilitate the process of planning and organising the roll-out of the programme nationwide. BreastCheck is currently in discussion with health boards concerning expansion of the programme nationwide. My Department will continue to support BreastCheck in moving to nationwide coverage as soon as possible.
