Just two 69-year-olds screened for breast cancer this year

Just two women aged 69 have been screened for breast cancer this year as part of the Government’s promised extension of BreastCheck to older women.

Another two 69-year-old women were screened in the whole of last year after it was announced BreastCheck was being extended to 65 to 69-year-olds.

The programme is being extended on a phased basis and will not be fully available to all 65 to 69-year-olds until 2021, according to information supplied to Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher.

BreastCheck provides free mammograms to women every two years. It was available to women aged between 50 and 64 up to the end of 2014, when eligibility was extended to older women.

Last year, 852 women aged 65-69 years were screened; and 8,488 women from this age group were screened in the first nine months of this year.

Misleading

Mr Kelleher said it seemed somewhat misleading for the Government to announce an extension of the programme to women aged 65-69 years and then to screen so far aged 69. “It is effectively excluding up to one in four women in the age range and obviously once they turn 70 they will lose the entitlement.”

BreastCheck said it had maintained it will take six years, or three screening rounds, to safely and effectively manage the extensions of the programme, without affecting current services.

It is estimated the full extension of the programme could save almost 90 lives a year. Ireland has the sixth highest incidence of breast cancer in Europe and the second highest death rate from the disease, according to an OECD report published last week.