Ottawa halts work of task force on cancer screening, other care

Ottawa has paused the work of an independent task force that advises family doctors on subjects ranging from cancer screening to fall prevention, putting a temporary stop to the group’s activities before a much-anticipated external review is completed.Federal Health Minister Mark Holland announced on Tuesday that he was suspending the work of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, a federally funded panel of 15 experts whose processes have come under intense public scrutiny in part because they declined to lower the starting age for routine mammograms to 40 from 50.