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Opposition spokesman for Health Neil Costa has said the Gibraltar Government has failed to get its act together on the provision of a routine mammography service at the GHA.

In a statement Mr Costa said that experts had concluded back in 2002 that screening can reduce deaths from breast cancer, describing as “totally unacceptable” the time that the Government have taken to set up the service.

“The Government have not done enough in all this time to bring Gibraltar in line with international recommen-dations,” he declared.

Mr Costa continued: “The suspension of one radiologist and the sacking of another along with the delays experienced in recruiting a third is yet another blow to the setting up of a structured, routine mammography service that the Opposition has been pressing for over many years. In the meantime, there are women out there who will continue to be at risk in the absence of such a service.

“The International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO) concluded as far back as 2002 that mammography screening can reduce deaths from breast cancer. At that time experts agreed that there was sufficient evidence provided by clinical trials which proved the efficacy of mammography screening of women between 50 and 69 years. The reduction in the mortality rate from breast cancer among women who chose to participate in screening programmes was estimated to be about 35%. It was also established that organised screening for breast cancer was far more effective in reducing the death rate than sporadic screening.

“In Gibraltar there is still no structured, routine mammography service offered to all women as a matter of course. In UK, there are around 80 breast screening units each of which invite a defined population of eligible women aged 50 to 70 to be screened. It was announced in December 2007 that by 2012 the programme would be extended to cover women between the ages of 47 and 73. The estimate in the UK is that more than 19 million women have been screened and 117,000 cancers have been detected savings hundreds of lives in the process.

“It is incredible that the Gibraltar Government has still not been able to get its act together on this issue even though they have had since 2002 to do so after the international working group reported its findings. The concern among many people locally is that this delay could cause lives to be lost as breast cancers go undetected.

“The Opposition were first told in September 2008 that an extra radiologist, who would start work in January 2009, had been recruited for this purpose. Neither the service nor the radiologist materialised at the time. In June 2009 Government said that the routine mammography service would start as soon as a third radiologist had been recruited and that this process was underway.

“In October 2009 I was told that the GHA were then in negotiations with a Consultant Radiologist in finalising the terms and conditions of his offer of appointment and that the

proposed commencement date was now January 2010. When the issue was raised in Parliament again in February of this year, the Opposition was told that a third radiologist had commenced employment in January for a period of two months on a locum basis, and that following the successful completion of this period he would be offered a contract. A pilot breast screening programme was expected to commence in the spring of 2010.

“The Government really have to get their act together on this one. The longer they take to establish the service, the longer that the women of Gibraltar will be deprived of its obvious benefits. Given that one radiologist has been suspended and another has been sacked, it is now a case of going back to square one. The time that the Government have taken to set up the service in the first place is totally unacceptable. The Government have not done enough in all this time to bring Gibraltar in line with international recommen-dations.”

Source: Gibraltar Chronicle

Discuss more about mammography in the mammography user group.