Welcome to our latest news summary featuring updates from the National Screening Service. To keep up to date with our news, including upcoming events and job opportunities, read our news reports, follow us on X @NSShse, LinkedIn, and on Bluesky @nsshse.
25 years of BreastCheck
This week, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill joined staff, advocacy groups and patient advocates at an event in our BreastCheck Eccles Unit to mark 25 years of BreastCheck.
Over the past 25 years we have screened 700,000 women, provided over 2.6 million mammograms and detected over 18,000 breast cancers. We have the research to show that BreastCheck can save lives. The event brought together our staff (past and present), advocacy groups and patient advocates to celebrate the success of BreastCheck, reflect on the achievements and challenges, and to reaffirm our commitment to continuous improvement and development to improve outcomes for women who choose screening.
The Minister opened the event by congratulating BreastCheck on its 25-year milestone, saying: “BreastCheck is a vital part of our healthcare system and continues to save countless lives. Thanks to BreastCheck, along with improved treatments and support services, breast cancer survival rates in Ireland have risen.”
The Minister also expressed gratitude to all the women taking part in BreastCheck, noting that their involvement is essential for making this life-saving initiative possible, and encouraged everyone to keep attending their appointments.
Read more about how we marked our 25th anniversary.
World’s first conference on cancer care for people who have an intellectual disability
We presented at the Breaking Barriers conference that took place at the Trinity College School of Nursing and Midwifery in Dublin, on 14 May.
The theme of the conference was Enhancing Cancer Care for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. Delegates heard that people who have intellectual disabilities experience higher cancer rates, later diagnoses, and less favourable outcomes. The conference was the first in the world to focus on this important and under-researched issue, setting out to highlight these challenges and work towards solutions.
Our presentation was titled A whole organisational approach to support cancer screening among people with intellectual disabilities. It described our three population screening programmes that screen for cancer and explained how increasing health literacy is an important part of our work to improve equity in screening.
Read more about how we support people who have an intellectual disability to choose screening, and about our participation at the Breaking Barriers conference.
New videos support the Deaf community to choose screening
We have produced new videos with Irish Sign Language (ISL) about our four screening programmes – BowelScreen, BreastCheck, CervicalCheck and Diabetic RetinaScreen.
This is part of our ongoing work to improve access to our screening programmes and to improve equity in screening. We want to make sure that people who use ISL have the information they need to make informed choices about taking part in screening.
ISL is the primary language of the Deaf community in Ireland. It is estimated that more than 5,000 people use it as their first language.
Read more about how we created our Irish Sign Language videos.
Managing invitations to BreastCheck
We've published a new blog on how we plan and manage BreastCheck invitations.
We aim to invite women for their first mammogram between the ages of 50 and 52 and every 2 years after that, up to the age of 69. Some women will be 53 when they get their first invite.
Most women will be screened every 2 years. This may be longer for some women. One of the reasons for this is the increase in the eligible population. The number of women eligible for breast screening has grown from 524,000 in 2019 to 625,000 in 2025.
We prioritise reaching women who can benefit most from screening, ensuring they are supported to take part in screening. We have taken steps to increase our capacity and we are planning for the future.
Supporting trauma-informed cervical screening at Limerick Female Prison
A new nurse-led initiative is enabling more women to access cervical screening in Limerick Female Prison. Edel Muldowney, the prison’s Nurse Manager, identified challenges for women in accessing cervical screening and led efforts to address them. Our CervicalCheck screening training unit provided formal accreditation to participating nurses, and Rape Crisis Centre counsellors offered trauma support.
Since the initiative began, 33 women have received cervical screening – a 200% increase on previous screening uptake. Eight were referred to colposcopy. HPV prevalence in the prison population was double the general population, and 88% of HPV-positive women required referral.
Read more about how we support trauma-informed cervical screening, and our toolkit to support community-led efforts to improve participation in screening.
More news in brief
Here is some more news we reported recently:
- 25 years of BreastCheck – Saving lives and advancing breast cancer screening in Ireland
- Women’s voices central to developing updated charter for BreastCheck
- Transforming healthcare through data: Our digital roadmap to improve outcomes for people who choose screening
- New communications toolkit supports our values of quality, equity and respect
- The facts about BreastCheck and breast density
We value your feedback - please contact us at: communications@screeningservice.ie.