Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

The focus of our health service is on illness to such an extent that I often wonder if the Department of Health and Children is appropriately named. BreastCheck is one of the initiatives that focuses on health through keeping women healthy. We all benefit from that approach and I would like to see more and not less of that approach. We all benefit directly from preventative health care in many ways. In this case women benefit directly from an early diagnosis which gives them the best possible chance of survival and means they require less radical intervention. A woman's family also benefits substantially for many years. Early diagnosis also results in a woman spending less time in hospital and I do not need to remind the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children that we all benefit from freeing up hospital beds.

I understand it will cost approximately €25 million to roll out the screening programme nationally. However, even considering the matter in a cold and unemotional way, failure to invest this money represents a false economy. I am certain if a cost benefit analysis were carried out, the cost of extending the service would be neutral. By adding the extra time spent in hospital, the extensive additional treatment often with expensive drugs, reconstruction surgery and the additional follow-up costs, the savings would be substantial.

The advertisement for BreastCheck is probably the only one I have ever heard on a health related topic to have a health warning included. The advertisement features Marian Finucane advertising the service and advises women they have nothing to fear and that an early diagnosis will result in an excellent prospect of cure. The final part advises people that in some parts of the country they cannot avail of the service. Women in the west and south are rightly outraged. However, women in the region served by BreastCheck have also noticed the unequal access to this service. While they are not campaigning for equal services for all, they are aware of and dislike this discrimination. There is no good or practical reason the BreastCheck service cannot be extended. The delays to date have been unacceptable and the service must be rolled out at the earliest possible date.

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