Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to discuss bowel cancer awareness. How great is the problem of bowel cancer? The answer is that it is massive. Some 900 people die from bowel cancer each year. That is the same as the combined number who die as a result of suicide and road accidents. We hear a great deal about suicide and road accidents, and anything that ends the lives of 900 people must be dealt with and taken seriously.

I congratulate the Irish Cancer Society and former Senator Kathleen O'Meara on raising our awareness of this issue. As previous speakers stated, the leaflet provided by the Irish Cancer Society is extremely effective. Many Members indicated their surprise at the lack of awareness among people of the symptoms of bowel cancer, but I am not one bit surprised. I worked in health promotion and health education for many years but I was not aware of those symptoms because this issue received no attention. The level of awareness is extremely low and 36% of people cannot name one sign or symptom of bowel cancer.

The Irish Cancer Society is doing the right thing by devoting one month to promote awareness of this issue. Holding awareness days or weeks is somewhat of a joke because these are usually over by the time one realises that they were being held in the first instance. The society is taking the correct approach.

Previous speakers highlighted the statistics relating to this matter and the need for a national screening programme. Two issues arise with regard to personal health. Every individual should take responsibility for his or her health, but we know that this does not happen. It certainly cannot happen if one is not aware of the symptoms in the first instance. We are aware that screening programmes work and they are needed wherever a public health issue arises. If 900 deaths are taking place each year from bowel cancer and if only 2% of those who contract it survive, Ireland has a monstrous public health issue with this disease.

I accept that the Minister for Health and Children has many priorities at present, particularly in light of the state of our national finances, but any disease that is taking 900 lives each year must be tackled. It would only cost €14 million to €15 million to establish a national screening programme and such a programme would pay for itself within five years. A national screening programme will probably have paid for itself before Ireland emerges from the current recession.

In the absence of a screening programme, two steps must be taken immediately. First, the Department must make plans to launch a media campaign to raise public awareness so that people will take responsibility for their health, attend their GPs and seek colonoscopies. The second step which must be taken is that, as Senator Keaveney stated, each person should be given the right to a personal health check.

Medical error is prevalent when in terms of pathology. At the relevant laboratory in Galway, there have been two examples of medical error in the past two years whereby a pathologist got the results wrong on a second occasion. That is outrageous. If we cannot have faith in the system and trust the results provided by laboratories in this country, how can we have confidence in the health system? Medical error has serious implications for people's health. However, if one considers the trend, it appears that locums are causing the problem. Why are background checks not carried out in respect of locums? In the case of one fifth of locums hired in this country, references are not checked and in one third of cases, interviews are not carried out. Is this not a sign that the health system is, for want of a better description, all over the place? Decisions are rushed and patients' safety is placed at risk as a result.

The most recent difficulties in Galway, in respect of two late diagnoses and one unnecessary intervention, would not have come to light had they not been identified by the UK National Health Service. Where are the checks and balances in our health system? As much as there is a need to promote bowel cancer awareness and to put in place a screening programme, there is also a need for reliable pathology. As a report published in 2002 indicated, there is need for an ongoing review.