Spain • • • 🌿 Progressive

La ministra de Sanidad, Mónica García, preside la reunión del Consejo Interterritorial del Sistema Nacional de Salud
Reunión del Consejo Interterritorial del Sistema Nacional de Salud presidida por la ministra de Sanidad. · La Moncloa / Ministerio de Sanidad

Breast cancer screening expands to women aged 45 to 74

The Interterritorial Council has approved expanding population breast cancer screening to women aged 45 to 74, with mammography every two years, a progressive…

--- The context --- The population breast cancer screening program in the common portfolio of the National Health System covered women aged 50 to 69 until now. That range left out two groups that are now brought into the program. --- The facts --- The Interterritorial Council of the National Health System has approved the draft order expanding breast cancer screening to women aged 45 to 74. The measure adds the 45 to 49 and 70 to 74 age groups, keeping mammography as the test, with a general interval of two years between examinations. Implementation will be progressive and in line with European recommendations. All autonomous communities and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in coordination with INGESA and civil servant mutual schemes, must have started the change within three years of the order taking effect, and the invitation to participate must approach 100% within six years in the new groups. During the initial phase, entry may be staggered by age and a three-year interval between mammograms may be adopted for the new groups, moving to two years once implementation is complete. The order also expands standard toric monofocal intraocular lenses, with covered corneal astigmatism moving from between 3 and 5 diopters to between 1.5 and 5 diopters, following a topographic study. --- The positions --- The meeting was chaired by the Minister of Health, Mónica García. The draft presents the expansion as an update of the common portfolio aimed at more homogeneous access, adjusting planning to each territory's resources in order to preserve quality. --- What remains unknown --- The source does not state when the order will take effect or give a calendar for each community. It also does not say how many women will enter the program or what resources will support the two-year interval in the new groups. --- Unanswered questions --- When will the order take effect and from what date will the three-year deadline to start the change run? How will each territory ensure that invitations approach 100% within six years? How long will the initial three-year interval last in practice before moving to two years? --- EPM analysis --- The order also expands the orthoprosthetic benefit: standing devices rise from two to eleven product types and tilting planes from one to four, with manual and electric options for children and adults. Funded dietary products will face updated requirements, with twelve months for companies to adapt them, and prenatal infectious disease screening will be renamed transmissible disease screening without changing its content. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, expanding screening from 45 to 74 corrects a narrow range that left out younger and older women facing real risk, and phasing it in acknowledges resource limits without abandoning the goal of invitations approaching 100% within six years. What matters now is that every territory starts within three years and genuinely brings the interval down to two years, because announced coverage without timely mammograms protects no one and simply shifts inequality into each region's own health calendar and waiting times.
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