The Catalan Ombudsman has taken into consideration the complaint of a 72-year-old man regarding the age limit for colon cancer screening programs and is asking the Catalan Health Department, on which the complaint is based, to stop performing diagnostic tests after the age of 69, precisely the age at which these types of tumors are most common. This case of ageism, or age discrimination, was reported by... Joaquim Vilargunter from Barcelona in the pages of ARA After the regional health department headed by Olga Pané and a court denied him entry into the public prevention program, the director of social rights for the Ombudsman, Jordi Sánchez Pinyol, has opened an investigation following the news published on November 17th to determine if the Health Department has scientific reports to justify the age restriction to 69, and also inquires whether any such reports exist within that age range. In his complaint, Joaquim Vilargunter provided reports from other health services, such as those in the Basque Country and others in the European Union, which have decided to extend the screening age range to 74, taking into account the high incidence of cancer and the fact that stool analysis is cheaper than medical treatment. In the letter that Sánchez Pinyol has sent to the Catalan Health Department (Salut), he also asks about the exact cost of each test and "the impact that extending the age range to 74 would have on the healthcare budget," as well as what information is available on the incidence of this type of cancer in people over 69. The Ombudsman explains that he has opted to act ex officio without mentioning Vilargunter's personal case, knowing that he is unlikely to receive a positive response before turning 74 (he is two years away), while it could be a solution for other people who are about to reach the maximum age for the prevention program. According to Sánchez Pinyol, colorectal cancer screenings have many parallels with breast cancer, which also has an age limit and leaves women without universal and free periodic screening.

The Community of Madrid will finally send its cancer screening data to the Ministry of Health after weeks of back-and-forth between Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the Spanish government. This afternoon, the Ministry of Health and all the autonomous communities agreed to share data on breast, colon, and cervical cancer screenings based on three indicators: the number of invitations to participate in the screening programs, the response rate to these invitations, and the number of positive cases detected during these screenings. The ministry, headed by Mónica García, requested the data from all the communities after... The breast cancer diagnosis scandal in Andalusiawhich affected at least 2,000 women.

The scandal over communication errors and delays in breast cancer screening in Andalusia has brought a prominent name within the Andalusian People's Party (PP) over the past week, but one that had been relatively unknown outside the autonomous community until now. This is Antonio Sanz, the Minister of the Presidency of the Andalusian Regional Government, who has also headed the Health Department since October, replacing Rocío Hernández, who was dismissed by President Juanma Moreno.

The new Health Minister of the Andalusian Regional Government, Antonio Sanz, demanded explanations this Wednesday for what he called "false reports" about the disappearance of breast cancer tests and invited "those who went to the Prosecutor's Office yesterday to log into the system today and see if all their documentation is there or not." Without naming her, Sanz was very harsh on Amama, The association that denounced the lack of control over mammograms, and has accused him of generating "a brutal social alarm" for having warned that for hours health system users could not access the results of diagnostic tests that were posted in medical records.

María José Méndez lives in Seville. She is 61 years old and, after a successful operation, is undergoing hormonal treatment for breast cancer at the Virgen Macarena University Hospital. Six months passed between the mammogram from the prevention program that detected something was wrong and the time she underwent further tests to diagnose the disease. Now, through the Association of Women with Breast Cancer (AMAMA), she has met other women affected by errors and delays in screenings under the early detection program in Andalusia.

Communication errors and delays in breast cancer screening in Andalusia are taking the form of complaints in various attempts to have the justice system clarify what went wrong and determine who is responsible. The Andalusian High Prosecutor's Office already has four complaints on the table and expects to receive others that have already been publicly announced in order to combine them and assess how to proceed, according to sources from the Public Prosecutor's Office told ARA. Two weeks ago, the The Andalusian government admitted errors in the diagnoses and estimated that there would be at least 2,000 affected. And the trickle of women continues. The scandal, which has already claimed the first political leader with the dismissal of the Minister of Health, Rocío Hernández, represents the biggest political crisis Juanma Moreno Bonilla has had to face since becoming president of Andalusia in 2019.