Front-page Health story was misleading
THE Health and Social Services Department wishes to correct statements made in relation to the evaluation and recommended next steps for the bowel cancer screening programme on pages one and two of the Guernsey Press on Monday 27 January.
The Press states that 'the decision to screen one birth cohort per year, and not invite people for a repeat screening later in life, was primarily down to "disagreement and unhappiness among those most closely involved with the service".'
This is repeated in the headline that 'dissent and unhappiness were the main reasons for not including a second age group in the bowel cancer screening programme.'
The full statement from the report was: 'On similar lines, meetings with key professionals in December 2013 confirmed that the eventual decision to screen only one birth cohort per year, and not to invite people for a repeat screening later in life, was the primary source of disagreement and unhappiness among those most closely involved with the service.'
The claim that 'staff unhappiness' resulted in a decision to screen only one cohort is factually incorrect. A full and accurate citation of the report would reveal that unhappiness among key professionals followed the decision to screen only one cohort.
The Press has stated 'that the screening of people aged 60 was only meant for the pilot study and that a second cohort at 65 was to be included in the full programme'.
The department considers that the Guernsey Press has misled the reader by omitting the context of this comment. This was the view expressed by the multi-disciplinary team who were consulted during the process of preparing the report. It was not a conclusion of the authors of the report. The decision about how to extend and improve the bowel cancer screening service will be made in accordance with the seven steps that the report recommends.
Finally, the Guernsey Press' comment that 'the report made it clear that it was always the intention to screen two age groups' is not an accurate reflection of the content. The report states in Part 1 A 'The bowel cancer screening programme appears to have delivered a good service, within the parameters agreed in 2011 (a one-off screen of people at the age of 60).'
HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT.
