The Labour Party has criticised the Government for failing to provide enough radiographers to ensure the implementation of Breastcheck, the national breast screening programme, writes Declan Fahy
Labour's spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, said "women's lives are being put at risk as a result of this failure".
She said "the Minister for Health has now admitted that the lack of radiographers is impacting on Breastcheck to the point that thousands of women are denied even a notification of a date when they might be able to access this screening".
Mr Liam Murray, president of the Irish Institute of Radiographers, said one Dublin hospital had 18 radiographer vacancies to fill, and almost all Dublin hospitals were down 10 to 20 per cent of the amount of required radiographers.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the issue of the shortage of radiographers was being examined and it would be addressing the problem in the near future.