Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

On prostate screening,I took the recommendation from the Cancer Forum. It states that there is currently insufficient evidence to recommend the introduction of a population based prostate screening programme in this country. It goes on to state that this is in line with EU recommendations and that one must introduce cancer screening programmes which have demonstrated their efficacy having regard to professional expertise and priority settings for health care resources.

In regard to Heartwatch or managing chronic illness, which is the big issue in the developed world, managing people who in the past died from the illness now live very good lives for a very long period. Therefore, managing chronic illness is a big challenge, which essentially will be done at GP level. In the context of the new contract, if we can get around to discussing it with the IMO, among the issues I want included is cervical screening, which can be done at GP level, rather than have another parallel programme rolled out with BreastCheck. Many of the issues referred to by Deputy Twomey are appropriate for the development of primary care. At GMS level, the remuneration to general practice has doubled over the past five years, even though the number of medical card holders was reduced by 100,000 in the same period. As we go forward, no doubt more and more money will go to general practice. We want to ensure that we introduce at that level some population screening such as cervical screening.

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