Cervical Cancer screening campaign

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Henny Penny

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The irish cancer society are running a campaign to get free cervical cancer screening nationwide for all women over 25. More details on www.cancer.ie. They are trying to get 5000 online signatures to present to the minister for health by 1st Feb.
 
I thought there was free screening already for women over 25?
Thanks for the link Henny Penny, I'll sign up it's a great idea.
Just as an aside, I thought there was just as big a big number of testicular cancers in Ireland and you never hear a geacs about that, there should be big promotions about how to check yourself too if the women are getting free testing.
 
Cervial cancer screening is free in the healthboard for Limerick as it is always advertised in Limerick as such but is not free nationwide. This was originally a pilot scheme but it should be extended to all women as a doctorsd fee shouldn't be a barrier to getting screened.
 
Why should it be free? My wife has always paid for her own smear tests. We can afford it. Why should we get it free?
 
At the risk of getting shot down ....

Wouldn't anyone with a medical card (incl. the doctor only ones) get a free smear anyway? Why would taxpayer subsidise those who can afford the test?

I think there are more sensible ways any such money could be spent in trying to combat this kind of cancer. Such as educating women about how important it is to have them done regularly. I also think that it would not go astray to educate the smear testers about how to make it as unpleasant as possible because in my experience there is a VAST difference between one smear test and another.

If you are on the pill (or other hormonal contraceptive), your doctor is supposed to insist you get a smear at regular intervals before going ahead with a repeat prescription. Furthermore, given that these kinds of contraceptives increase the exposure to cervical cancer, I wonder if these (or particular types of them) are more popular in Ireland than in other countries and contribute to the increased rate of cancer incidences here.

I get regular smears with my doctor and pay for them. But you can get a free smear at STI clinics which AFAIK checks for cancer as well as all the other nasties. No questions asked (not even your name).

Rebecca

(crossed with Clubman, sorry)
 
pricilla said:
Just as an aside, I thought there was just as big a big number of testicular cancers in Ireland and you never hear a geacs about that, there should be big promotions about how to check yourself too if the women are getting free testing.
Click to expand...


There was a huge campaign for men a year or two ago - the bit I particularly remember was seeing signs up in garages. Something along the lines of "you make sure to check you car out regularly, why not do the same for yourself" - one garage near me still has those posters up.
 
I think that the issue is that it is such a preventable cancer if someone gets a smear.
But yeah I suppose an awareness campaign is prob a better idea than free smears.
Also if your smear comes back with a problem the treatment is free. So the only cost is a doctor's visit once a year at most (& usually only required every 3 years)
I suppose mayb some people just wont get it done if it costs them money

The major issue I see at the moment is actually that it takes approx 4 months to get the results back......!!
 
Just for information, certain BUPA schemes (Essential, HealthManager) covers 'Charges for screening for cervical cancer and breast examination at a BUPA Ireland approved centre'.
 
As someone who received hospital treatment for this very thing earlier this week, I strongly recommend every woman to go for a smear. I'd also urge people to get one every year as I believe 3 years is too big a gap. It's unpleasant but important.

I also don't really see why it should be free. Every adult female knows how important it is but from speaking to my friends it's not the cost (€45) that's putting them off, it's the fear of the procedure!
 
The reason for trying to implement FREE testing is in an attempt to detect cancers. Cancer knows no monetary boundaries.
Cervical screening does not prevent a cancer, sometimes it does not even detect cancerous cells which are present in the area.
If the scheme is implemented, it is hoped that all women, no matter their financial status will attend regularly.
The more talked about this issue is, the less scary it becomes.
When the tests are free, all women over 25 will be called to attend screening on a regular basis and therefore it is hoped that the incidence of cervical and other types of female only cancer will be cut.

[broken link removed]

Please support
 
Why should it be free? Here are some (maybe valid) reasons.
In this country one has to be in quite sever financial circumstances to qualify for a medical card.Not everyone has €40-€50 to spend on what they might deem to be something they won't want to do anyway.
The target group is one where the people being targetted regularly put every other member of the family's needs ahead of their own. If it is free it is one less reason why they should not bother.
Also on a pure cost basis if every potential cervical cancer is picked up and treated at a pre-cancerous stage there will be huge savings for the state(i.i taxpayer) in the future. Cervical cancer AFAIK is one of the few that can be picked up at this pre-cancerous stage and treated easily.
If a campaign is launched with free screening it adds weight to the importance of the campaign. Not much in this country is free any more so therefore this must be really necessary.
Sometimes those of us in fairly well paid jobs don't realise that others don't have as much disposable income as we do for what we consider to be necessities - for others they are luxuries. Health should never be a luxury.
 
I (and others) simply questioned the rationale for making it free for all. This in no way precludes it being made available for free to those who genuinely can't afford the cost nor does it mean that people who question this approach are forgetting those who may earn less or be on welfare. In this day and age - and ecomonic and employment climate - I would imagine that only a minority could not afford to pay for this procedure themselves but having clear and equitable qualification criteria for subsidisation would surely sort things out. Isn't this a procedure that only needs to be carried out ever few years so the €40-€50 or whatever would hardly break the bank especially when you consider what many people manage to spend on beer and fags etc. And those who foot the bill themselves can always add it to their other medical expenses for the year when claiming MED1 tax relief I presume.
 
Two points;

- Setting up a new 'means test' process with its own qualification criteria for smear tests would probably cost more than doing the test itself.
- MED1 relief would only be use to those who have already incurred expenses to bring them over the initial threshold.
 
RainyDay said:
- Setting up a new 'means test' process with its own qualification criteria for smear tests would probably cost more than doing the test itself.
Click to expand...
That may be a valid argument against such a means test. It's not necessarily a valid argument in favour of just making the test free to all.
- MED1 relief would only be use to those who have already incurred expenses to bring them over the initial threshold.
Click to expand...
Yes - I did say that they could add the cost of a smear test to their other expenses when submitting a MED1 claim.

By the way - in case some of the earlier posters are misreading my posts, merely questioning the rationale or logic of making such a test free to all is not to disregard the seriousness of the health issues involved or, as I have already said, to assume that everybody should foot the bill themselves.
 
If screening for any particular illness (cervical cancer in this case) was widely available it should increase the early detection rate of the cancer, thereby hopefully leading to better cure rates. Furthermore if screening were to be made available at community level it would mean a more accurate picture of geographical/enviromental influences in cancer rates would be gained. By making the test free of charge it would remove the socio-economic factor and provide a truer picture of the state of health in a particular area.
 
I think money should be invested in speeding up the process of analysing the tests etc. My sister has an irregular smear about a year and a half ago. 4 months after the original test she got a call to say that the result showed something irregular, she then went for some treatment to remove whatever irregularities were there, samples of this were tested and she has to wait another four months to hear that these were pre cancerous..then had another test to see if the treatment had sorted things out and waited another three or four months for the results of that......So twelve months (ish) from the orginal test to give her the all clear...Needless to say four of those months were spent in ignorance that the irregularity existed and a further eight months of absolute panic wondering how serious it was.....
 
The above posters are correct in that the Cervical Cancer Screening programme is currently being operated on a pilot basis in the HSE (Mid-Western) Area. The Dept. of Health confirmed to me last week that the Department are now in the process of discussing options for the further roll-out/expansion of the programme with the Health Service Executive.

All women in the pilot area among the target group (25-60) are offered free screening. Women outside of the target group age 25-60 in the pilot area (even those with medical cards) are not offered free screening, save where clinical need recommends.

I might also clarify that cervical cancer screening is not provided free of charge generally, to medical card holders anywhere. However again, where individual clinical need recommends screening, (i.e., if a medical card holder has a history or family history of cervical cancer) then this is available for medical card patients.

GP Visit Card holders have only an entitlement to free GP visits and cervical cancer screening (is not, to my knowledge anyway) available free of charge to GP Visit Card holders.

As with Breastcheck, participation in the cervical cancer screening programme is voluntary and you are free to choose not to participate if you wish.

Some of the reaons why the screening programme have not been expanded nationally I believe relate to forthcoming changes to the overall scheme following the pilot project and it's evaluation, the size of the extended target group (25-60 years for a national cervical programme) versus Breastcheck's (50-64 years), the recent and forthcoming changes in HSE structures, etc.

Like other posters, I would recommend that anyone who has a history of cancer (cervical cancer or any other other), or has any concerns about these conditions, you should speak to your family doctor.

If I hear anything else, I'll post again.

CMCR.
 
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