Balearic Islands extends colon cancer screening to all public hospitals

The Balearic Islands will extend the colon cancer screening programme to all public hospitals in the community, according to the Govern. This will be done by providing health centres with the technical equipment and staff necessary for the initiative to become effective before 2024. To this end, Ib-Salut will allocate 882,854 euros towards the contract to supply the endoscopy equipment needed to implement the colon and rectal cancer screening programmes in all the hospitals on the islands. The contract was approved yesterday by the Consell de Govern. This contract includes the provision and maintenance for a period of five years of a complete endoscopy tower, two HD video colonoscopes and an electrosurgical unit for the hospitals of Son Espases, Son Llàtzer, Hospital Comacal de Inca, Hospital de Manacor, Mateu Orfila de Maó and Can Misses de Ibiza. 60% of colon and rectal cancer cases are diagnosed when the disease is already very advanced. The Govern’s plan aims to alter this trend and tackle the disease in its early stages in order to increase patient survival and wellbeing. Its specific aim is to improve population coverage rates of the colon and rectum cancer screening programme, as well as the public’s participation rates in these diagnostic processes. For this reason, the program will be extended to all health sectors of the Balearic Islands in order to increase its effectiveness. Until now it has only been carried out in Mallorca in the health area of the Hospital Comarcal de Inca, under the direction of Dr. José Reyes Moreno, recently appointed president of the Spanish Association Against Cancer in the Balearic Islands . Screening for colon and rectal cancer is in two stages. The first is blood screening and the second is a colonoscopy in the event that any sign of a potentially malignant growth has been detected in the previous stage.