Richard Bruton
Ceist:203 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of people who have responded to the Government's recent advertising campaign to promote breast screening by seeking an appointment for screening. [8845/01]
Written Answers. - Cancer Screening Programme.
Richard Bruton
Ceist:204 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health and Children the volume of screening under the breast screening programme which is taking place per month; and if this is sufficient to meet the demand. [8846/01]
Richard Bruton
Ceist:205 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health and Children the date when a woman now seeking to be screened under the breast screening programme can expect to be given an appointment for the procedure. [8847/01]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 203 to 205, inclusive, together.
BreastCheck, the national breast screening programme, commenced in February 2000.
BreastCheck's recent advertising campaign has been very successful and the uptake of invitations to screening is now approaching the target level of at least 70%, which BreastCheck hopes to exceed. The cumulative uptake since the start of the programme is 67% and BreastCheck has informed me that this figure is likely to increase by several percentage points when the second invitations for women who did not attend are issued in all areas screened.
BreastCheck is strongly committed to reaching all women in the target age group 50 to 64 years as quickly as the campaign allows. Phase one of the programme covers the Eastern Regional Health Authority area and the North Eastern and Midland Health Board areas. Special legislation was passed allowing BreastCheck to collate a register of eligible women and screening will be offered to well women, who have no symptoms, in a systematic way so that all eligible women can be screened routinely every two years. If a woman has symptoms she should consult her general practitioner.
In the initial stages low volumes of women were screened in order to ensure that the quality of the programme was optimised at every step. BreastCheck offers screening to women in the target age group by invitation only and is there fore not a demand service Women in the target age group will be automatically invited for screening on an area by area basis, in a fair and equitable manner covering each of the health board areas in phase one. To date BreastCheck has invited over 30,000 women for screening.