While reading your editorial “A national breast screening programme” (TMID, 24 October), I could not help but wonder how long the government will be taking to launch what other countries have had for several years.

I understand the financial difficulties that could exist, but the government boasts of having an excellent health service, and a national breast screening programme should form part of this “excellent service”.

Prevention is better than cure, and the money that will be spent on “prevention” will mean money saved from “cure”. I believe that in the long run, considering the expenses involved in the treatment of breast cancer, the government will be spending less.

I do hope that the visit by EU experts next month will be the last step of a process that has gone on for far too long. The Nationalists promised a breast screening programme some 10 years ago, and here we are still waiting for it.

In the meantime, many unfortunate women have lost their lives just because their cancer was not detected in time.

C Farrugia

Sliema