Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 19 October 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

BreastCheck and National Cancer Control Programme: HSE
BreastCheck Screening Programme and Improving Outcomes for Breast Cancer: Discussion

Ms Finola Flanagan:

From the point of view of screening, I would echo what we have said. Screening is very well resourced. One of the principles of screening is that we do not embark on screening unless we have the capacity to do it and the up-to-date technology, as healthy women are invited for screening.

To respond to the Deputy's question on what is the most significant challenge to doing that, it is the radiology workforce. That will be a problem in delivering this service in the future. As Professor Hill and I have said, it is a challenging job. Currently, radiologists are not necessarily choosing it as a career. Considering the skill mix of other professionals perhaps is an answer or, indeed, artificial intelligence, but that is way down the line. The critical time will be in the next few years to try to keep the service going and to encourage our younger trainees to come into this as a specialty. That would be the challenge for us.

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