The Irish Cancer Society welcomes extra funding for cancer care

The Irish Cancer Society has said it is pleased that the first health budget increase in seven years has been reflected in an increase in funding to cancer care in the HSE Service’s Plan 2015.

The Services Plan has committed €100,000 to the extension of BreastCheck to women aged between 65 and 69. The Irish Cancer Society says that if screening is due to begin late next year, it is critical that some of the budget earmarked for the extended programme is used to recruit radiographers.

Kathleen O’Meara, Head of Advocacy & Communications said “We know that screening women between the ages of 65-69 will save an additional 87 lives every year. The Irish Cancer Society welcomes the extra funding for BreastCheck but we want to ensure more radiographers are appointed as soon as possible so the extended screening programme can get underway and detect cancers in women in the upper age group.”

The Society has been campaigning for this extension since 2011, and handed in a petition of signatures to the Government this year, asking the Government to keep their promise to provide this life saving screening to women aged 65-69.

The Society also welcomed the additional €15.1 million funding provided to the National Cancer Control Programme in order to enhance oncology services.

Kathleen O’Meara says: “We know that cancer incidence is increasing. One in three people in Ireland will develop cancer during their lifetime. In Ireland an average of 30,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year. The number is expected to rise to over 40,000 per year by 2020. So an enhancement and expansion of services is vitally important”.

Given the high cost of cancer drugs, the Irish Cancer Society welcomed the additional provision of €7 million to fund new cancer drugs and said that the development of new treatments was vital to better survival rates and quality of life for people with cancer.