The Minister of Health, Antonio Gómez Caamaño, confirmed that Xunta would send data on cancer screenings to the Ministry of Health, and also contributed to the creation of an advisory committee on these programs with patient representation to exchange information and improvement strategies.
“The data is in the Public Health Observatory. Of course they will also submit it to the (Health) Ministry. They will be given – I think they gave us a month, right?, to do this – and it will be sent to you. But (from the Ministry) you can see it,” the minister stressed, adding that at the meeting of the Interregional Council of the National Health System that will be held on Wednesday, this issue will be addressed and how to analyze how this data is sent.
Although Xunta emphasized from the beginning that these data were public and that they could be consulted on the website of the Galician Health Service, the councilor clarified on Monday that they would also be sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that he hoped that this issue would be taken up on Wednesday in the meeting with the communities.
All this is a result of the fact that, after recording failures in screening operations in Andalusia, the Minister of Health, Monica García, demanded that the autonomous communities during the CISNS network collect data on “all” the screening programs they implement with the aim of carrying out a “comprehensive monitoring” of their development and “strengthening the surveillance” throughout the country.
Advisory Board
On Monday, the health chief met with representatives of the Spanish Cancer Control Association at the ministry in Santiago, where he announced that Xunta plans to create an “advisory board” to monitor screening programmes.
The Chancellor stressed that “the idea” when creating the group was to continue working on “transparency”, and therefore, in this council there will also be representatives of patients, administration, public health as well as health workers.
Breast screens
Regarding breast cancer screening, Camaño pointed out that this began in the Galician community in 1992 and stressed that “the coverage rate is practically 100%.” The Chancellor also stressed that the participation rate is “one of the highest” in the country and in Europe, at 84.6%.
He stressed, “Since the beginning of (screening), 13,000 cases of breast cancer have been discovered, 950 in 2023. The interesting thing is that screening saves lives because it detects diseases in the early stages.”
Regarding colorectal cancer, the advisor revealed that coverage is also “practically 100%,” although participation is lower, especially in men. He added: “To date, the percentage has been approximately 56%.” Moreover, since 2013, the number of detected cancer cases has risen to 2,618, the “most” of which are detected at early stages.
Finally, regarding cervical cancer screening, the “latest”, which was implemented in “all of Galicia” in 2023, Camaño specified that it has “low coverage” due to “temporal reasons”.
The council member stressed that Xunta wants to “manage” this examination issue “with the utmost transparency.” “If we have the data, what we have to do is present it. It will be done,” he concluded.
About The Author
