Health Minister António Gómez Caamaño said Sunta has ensured that data on cancer screening will be transmitted to the Ministry of Health and has moved forward with the establishment of an advisory committee on these programs of patient representatives to share information and improvement strategies.
“The data is in the Public Health Surveillance Agency. Of course they will also pass it on to the (Health) Ministry. The data will be given – I think they gave us a month to do so – and it will be sent to you. But from the (Ministry) you can see it,” the minister stressed, adding that the matter will be taken up at Wednesday’s meeting of the National Healthcare System Regional Councils and it will be analyzed how this data is transmitted.
Councilor Sunta assured from the beginning that these data are public and can be viewed on the website of the Galician Health Authority, but on Monday this week the councilor explained that the data will also be sent to the State Department and that he expects this issue to be resolved at a meeting with the community on Wednesday.
All this is a result of the fact that, after the failures were recorded in the tests in Andalusia, the Minister of Health Mónica García, during the CISNS meeting, requested from autonomous communities data on “all” of the testing programs they are carrying out, with the aim of “thorough monitoring” of the development of autonomous communities and “strengthening surveillance” throughout the country.
advisory committee
The Director-General of Health met with representatives of the Spanish Anti-Cancer Society in the province of Santiago on Monday and announced that Sunta plans to establish an “advisory committee” to oversee the testing program.
He stressed that the “idea” in establishing the organization was to continue to work on “transparency” and that the council would therefore include patients, government, public health representatives and medical professionals.
breast screen
Regarding breast cancer screening, Ms. Carmagno recalled that this began in the Galician community in 1992, and stressed that “the uptake rate is virtually 100%.” The councilor also highlighted that the participation rate was 84.6%, “one of the highest” in the country and in Europe.
“Since the start (of screening), 13,000 breast cancer cases have been detected, rising to 950 in 2023. What’s interesting is that screening saves lives because it detects the disease early,” he stressed.
Regarding colorectal cancer, the MP also revealed that participation was “virtually 100%”, but participation was particularly low among men. “As of today, it was more or less 56%,” he added. Furthermore, since 2013, the number of cancers detected has increased to 2,618, which is “most commonly” detected at an early stage.
Finally, regarding the “updated” cervical cancer screening that will be carried out “all over Galicia” in 2023, Carmagno declared that the coverage will be “low” due to “time reasons.”
The councilor stressed that Sunta wanted to “manage” the review issue “with the utmost transparency”. “If we have the data, all we have to do is present it, and it will be done,” he concluded.
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