To ask the Minister of Health whether his Department has considered providing mobile cancer screening units for hard-to-reach rural areas.

There are currently three commissioned population cancer screening programmes in Northern Ireland: the breast, bowel and cervical screening programmes.

For breast screening, the Breast Screening Unit in Linenhall Street, in Belfast, provides mammography screening for women in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust area. In the other HSC Trust areas, most screening mammograms are already carried out on mobile breast screening trailers which rotate between a variety of locations across Northern Ireland.

As the Bowel cancer screening programmes involves the use of a home test kit which is posted directly to participant’s homes, a mobile unit is not appropriate or required.

The NI Cervical Screening Programme is provided at GP practices located across Northern Ireland in local settings, which are accessible. Mobile screening units are not currently used or being considered.