Annual Report 2005/2006: Chairperson's Statement
- Welcome to the 2005/2006 Annual Report of BreastCheck, the National Breast Screening Programme.This Report includes Programme performance data for women invited in 2005 and other developments up to the time of publication in November 2006.
2005 was a year of continued progress for BreastCheck as detailed in the Director’s Report and the Programme Statistics. The Board was very happy that women in Carlow and Kilkenny were invited for screening for the first time.
The Board’s plans for the expansion of screening to the South and the West of the country are progressing rapidly during 2006. Clinical Directors Designate have been appointed and a number of other key staff appointments are underway. Contracts have been awarded for the development of the facilities that we need to deliver the Programme.
In my last Chairperson’s Statement I spoke of the pride that the staff of BreastCheck show in belonging to an organisation that continues to be a model of excellence within the Health Service. This has been underlined by the recent decision of the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney TD, to establish a National Cancer Screening Service to take forward the BreastCheck Programme, the existing pilot Cervical Programme and a possible future Colorectal Screening Programme. The governance, quality assurance and business models developed by BreastCheck have been recognised as key to the success of the Programme thus far.The Minister’s decision to allow this model to be shared by other existing and potential future cancer screening programmes is to be welcomed.
The existing National Breast Screening Board will be expanded to form the Board of the new organisation. I am delighted to have been asked to chair that organisation and I look forward to working with Tony O'Brien, the current Director of BreastCheck who will be Chief Executive of the National Cancer Screening Service, in taking the organisation and its screening programmes forward.
In a wider sense BreastCheck is now playing a larger role in relation to the development of cancer services
through the involvement of key staff members in a
number of important initiatives.
I wish to thank all members of the National Breast Screening Board for their contribution to the programe since the Board was re-established in January 2005. This is the first report reflecting the work of the organisation during their term of office. I also wish to thank the Audit Committee, independently chaired by David Flood, for its work and for its contribution to our governance arrangements.
The Programme has been well supported by the Minister for Health and Children,Mary Harney TD and her officials and I thank them for their ongoing commitment to the roll-out of BreastCheck as a national service in 2007.
I offer warm thanks to the staff of BreastCheck under the leadership of the Director Tony O'Brien for their continued, demonstrable commitment to taking the programme forward and to continuing to be a model of excellence within the Health Service.
I would also like to thank the many supporters of BreastCheck in primary healthcare, community organisations and the media who play such a vital role in supporting the uptake of screening. Lastly and most importantly I wish to acknowledge the women who avail of the screening programme – almost 60,000 women who were invited in 2005 took up their invitations.
Dr. Sheelah Ryan
Chairperson, National Breast Screening Board.
(from the Annual Report 2005/2006)
BreastCheck Programme Statistics 2005
Download full Annual Report 2005/2006:
English (.pdf file 640 kb, 38 pages - A4 format) BC-areport05-English.pdf
Irish (.pdf file 640 kb, 38 pages - A4 format) BC-areport05-Irish.pdf