Services for Canberra women with breast cancer are failing to keep up with growing demand, according to the Opposition and the Greens.
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The ACT Legislative Assembly heard yesterday screening rates were going backwards and waiting times for some post-cancer treatment services had blown out to three months.
The Canberra Liberals say a shortage of radiologists in the public health system is hampering efforts to boost early diagnoses.
But the ACT Health Services Directorate said according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the BreastScreen ACT program had the best detection rate for all-size invasive cancers in Australia.
Liberals Health spokesman Jeremy Hanson said 200 new cases of breast cancer in women and one new case in men were being diagnosed in the ACT each year and that cancer diagnoses were predicted to grow by 22 per cent each year.
Mr Hanson said that prevention programs were not reaching their performance targets.
''The target for BreastScreen ACT for women between 50- and 60-years-of-age is 60 per cent, this year, 53 per cent was achieved and that was a decrease of 2 per cent on the previous year,'' he said.
''The percentage of women who received their assessment within 28 days of being screened has fallen.
''The target for women receiving their assessments within 28 days is 90 per cent. However, only 76 per cent of women undergoing breast screening receive their results within that timeframe.''
Mr Hanson accused the Government of not matching its rhetoric with action.
''The Government cannot just continue to talk about this issue, without taking action to back it up and achieve the targets that have been set,'' he said.
The ACT Greens raised concerns about the service for women who develop lymphoedema when they have had lymph nodes removed as part of breast cancer treatment.
''Reports over the last year have shown that women are having trouble with timely access to the Lymphoedema Clinic because of increasing demand and limited resources,'' Greens Health spokeswoman Amanda Bresnan said.
''I have called on the Government to review demand at the clinic and report on this prior to the next ACT Government budget.
''This should be reflected in Lymphoedema Clinic funding through the 2012-13 budget in May.''
But a spokeswoman for Health Minister and Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said that BreastScreen ACT was a success story.
''During 2010-2011, BreastScreen ACT provided screens to 11,666 ACT women and 6,091 NSW women,'' the spokeswoman said.
''Since July 1, 2011, there has been a significant increase in screening numbers against the targets.
''In the first quarter of 2011-12, BreastScreen is exceeding its target screening over a 1000 women per month.''
The spokeswoman said that work was underway to further lift the screening numbers.
''A range of factors have affected BreastScreen ACT's ability to meet its target for screening, including a shortage of radiographers,'' she said.
''The implementation of digital mammography in the first half of the financial year also resulted in a reduction in the number of clinics available and a delay in the reading of images. This was resolved in the second half of the year.''