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Human Rights in IrelandIndymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
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Smear Tests No Longer Covered by Medical Card national |
rights, freedoms and repression |
opinion/analysis
 Tuesday March 16, 2004 12:13 by Joleen Kuyper joleenkuyper at eircom dot net
 Cervical Smear Tests are no longer covered by the medical card and the only reason I found out about this was a notice in my doctor's office. How can the government do this without even letting the people know? While waiting to see my doctor recently I had a look at some of the notices on the board. One was a list of various procedures no longer covered by the medical card. There were quite a few, but the most outrageous was smear tests. I saw nothing about this on the national news, I was unaware the government were even discussing it. It may seem like a small issue in comparison with the other things the Irish government are doing against the will or without the knowledge of the people but this makes it all the more important that we do not ignore this issue. There are women who will not be able to aford to have regular smear tests done if they are not covered by their medical card - are they doomed therefore to die of cervical cancer? All the time I hear how important it is for women to do regular breast checks, have a smear test every three years, in order to catch any sign of cancer early enough to stop it and receive treatment. I thought that was something we now had a right to, being part of a modern country like Ireland. it seems it is only the case as long as we can afford to pay for it. |
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Comments (10 of 10)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Thank you, Joleen, for posting this on Indymedia. I know that some Irish journalists who write for mainstream publications check the site regularly, and I hope they'll follow up this story.
In France I believe they practically pay you to get regular smear tests. Its complete idiocy for a state to make such early-warning checks against cancer and STDs more expensive. What are the government playing at?
This is the first time I've heard about this-not only do women have to wait for 4 months for the reults of a smear, (even in the case of there having been irregular cells detected in previous results), but now those who hold a medical card will be forced to pay. I have just enquired about Well Woman Clinics and medical card holders are still covered-I wonder if this has come from pressure from G.P.s. as a result of the very long waiting time for results. Cervical cancer is a preventable disease-if detected and treated-in time.
But hundred of millions in tax concessions go to the horse breeding sector. how sick can you get. c'mon everybody bring this to the attention of every journalist you know & write letters to the papers about it & hassle your TDs & councillors and kick up mayhem! picket "health" board meetings etc.
if this is why smears not covered by medical cards:
http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2003/10/14/story153014770.asp
then shouldn't smear tests be covered again for 2004 with the commencement of a new fiscal year? or am i looking at this way too simplistically?
its a matter of life & death. its not some kind of cosmetic test. lack of money is no excuse. the subsistence expenses of health board members would cover the shortfall in this area.
its unacceptable that for even a sjhort duration, that medical card holders should be denied this test.
looking at the Irish Cervical Screening Programme Ireland website www.icsp.ie, it says all services provided are free.
so i spose it would be the logical thing to do to register with the ICSP and get sent for free smears and not pay the doctor for visits? wouldn't make a difference if a person had a medical card or not then, i presume-anyone know for sure? anyone feel like ringing them?
is there such a scheme for men to register for free prostate etc tests?
not sure if theres a free scheme for that, must check up. but i have come across some stats from the US NIHs re cervical & prostate cancer.
where localised prostate cancer is detected at an early stage and treated, 100% of victims were still alive after 5 years.
where localised cervical cancer is detected at an early stage and treated, 96% of victims were still alive after 5 years.
Just talked to a GP from a deprived urban area. The Doctor confirms that smears are not covered by the medical card, but 2 years ago the health board advised the practice to perform smears on the medical card and they would be re-imbursed. 2 years later they have not received a penny from the health board and it appears that they will not. I guess that this is why the practice mentioned in this report has now decided to withdraw the service. This type of deception is apparently quite a common practice by the health board and is one of the reasons for the extremely poor relationship between GPs and the health board.
England has come a long way in improving cancer survival rates in the past 30 years but still does not match up to Europe and the US, a report says. The National Audit Office found cancer rates have risen by 31% since 1971, but death rates have fallen by 12%. It also showed a regional difference with people more likely to die of cancer in the north than in the south.
*Full story & some interesting links at:
I went for a smear test 7 years ago, in Dublin7, and was charged for it -even though I had a medical card- and also never even recieved the results. That was their standard practice then; maybe other regions did it for free/gave out results? Concidering the 'health' system has no interest in health (womens' or otherwise), it shouldn't be a surprise..