Greens MP Ian Cohen will ask Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt about improving access for all Northern Rivers women to the new breast screen machines that are at Tweed Heads and Lismore. Mr Cohen supports the concerns of residents who are protesting the removal of mobile screening units that serviced Ballina, Byron Bay, Lennox Head and Casino. Women in the area now have to go to fixed breast screening units at Lismore or Tweed Heads for a mammogram.
“I will be putting Questions on Notice to the Health Minister because I am concerned about a reduction of access to the breast screening services. I raised this issue in Parliament during Breast Cancer Awareness Week last year. I also wrote to the Minister about the issue. She assured me then that the mobile units have been replaced by state of the art breast screening machines at Lismore and Tweed Heads.”
“I will be asking the Health Minister further questions to determine whether these new machines could be put into mobile units. Women would then have the advantage of the new technology and the increased access that the mobile unit provides.”
“Not all women in the Northern Rivers area have a car; there is poor public transport in the area and many women will find it very difficult to get to their nearest screening centre,” says Ian Cohen.
“It is important to increase the number of women who are coming to be screened for breast cancer. I am especially concerned about women from indigenous communities in less accessible areas such as Cabbage Tree Island, for whom travel to Lismore is quite an expedition.
“Local women report that when there was a van in Ballina, a mammogram was a quick examination that took around 15 minutes. Just to travel to Lismore from Ballina will take 40 minutes each way.
“The message of all breast cancer awareness campaigns is that early detection is of paramount importance in determining a woman’s survival and recovery from the disease.
“I will be asking the Minister if the return of the mobile Breastscreen units can provide better health outcomes for women by making screening easier to access.“
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