Govt to overhaul breast cancer screening
The Government will overhaul the breast cancer screening system in hope of reaching 271,000 people who are eligible for free mammograms but aren’t getting the scans.
The new system will seek out people eligible for the scans and ask them to ‘‘optout’’, as opposed to the current system, which waits for people to determine they are eligible and ‘‘opt-in’’ to the programme.
The upcoming Budget, scheduled to be announced on May 20, will include $55.6 million to upgrade the Information Technology systems used for the breast cancer screening programme, and a further $10m to keep up with the growing population of eligible people and to catch those who have missed appointments because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said there were 271,000 people eligible for scans who had not been reached by the programme.
‘‘The current ageing IT infrastructure puts the programme at risk. It lacks the flexibility to be easily upgraded to meet the needs of the community, and is no longer supported well by vendors,’’ Verrall said. ‘‘The new technology will better equip the programme to reach the 271,000 women who are eligible to access breast screening but are not currently being screened, by being able to directly invite them and run targeted campaigns.
‘‘When women are offered an appointment, they can choose to participate or ask to opt-out.’’
The breast-screening programme, which currently costs $60m a year, offers free mammogram scans every two years to women aged 45 to 69 who have no symptoms. Roughly 3200 people are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and about 600 people die from the disease.
Verrall said the existing system relied on women knowing they were eligible for breast screening, and enrolling through their GP, or by calling a 0800 number. ‘‘With more Ma¯ ori and Pacific women dying from breast cancer compared with non-Ma¯ori and non-Pacific women, the new system will allow BSA to identify priority group women who may not already be part of the programme.’’
The new system would be up and running within two years, she said.