Hiqa reports on breast cancer care

Breast disease services at Ireland's eight designated cancer centres are broadly meeting the national standards for care, according to the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).

Hiqa today published its report into the quality and safety of symptomatic breast disease services in Ireland, and eight local hospital reports from the designated centres.

It said all centres now had in place "the fundamental requirements" for safe, quality care such as triple assessment procedures, multidisciplinary teams, and appropriate equipment.

However, Hiqa’s report noted some centres fell below the required performance in relation to offering appointments for 95 per cent of patients “triaged as urgent” within two weeks during the course of 2009.

The centres, Hiqa said, acknowledged they were not meeting the acceptable standards and remedial measures, such as additional clinics, were taken to bring performance to the required limits by the end of the year.

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in Ireland, accounting for 30 per cent of all cancers in women in Ireland with around 2,500 new breast cancer cases diagnosed each year.

The director of health-care quality and safety with Hiqa, Jon Billings, said "significant progress has been made in the physical establishment of the eight designated centres".

“The centres have been found to be meeting the key requirements of the national quality assurance standards for symptomatic breast disease services.

"This represents a major shift in the capability and capacity of the health system to deliver safer and better care for people with symptomatic breast disease, as compared to the position in the autumn of 2007,” he said.

The Irish Cancer Society today welcomed the publication of the report into the eight centres.

Spokeswoman Kathleen O’Meara said: “The continuous oversight of designated centres by Hiqa has and should continue to ensure that hospitals maintain compliance with all the standards in place for access to and treatment of breast cancer.

"However, we hope that the Government will build on the example they have set for breast cancer and work towards centralised diagnosis and treatment of prostate, lung, bowel and skin cancer as soon as possible,” she said.