Dr Jackie Blue MP
National Party Associate Health Spokeswoman

10 August 2007

Young women still missing out on breast screening

National's Associate Health spokeswoman, Dr Jackie Blue, says the Government's much-touted extension to the BreastScreen Aotearoa programme is still failing young women.

"It's a cruel irony that while Health Minister Health Minister Pete Hodgson was this week announcing an 'ambitious new direction for health', a key group of women were continuing to miss out on free mammograms.

"Since the eligibility for the breast screening programme was extended three years ago to include women aged 45-49, only one in three of that target group is actually being screened."

Dr Blue is commenting on information obtained from a parliamentary written question.

"The international target is to screen 70% of all eligible women, but only slightly more than a third of women aged 45-49 are being checked.

"This compares with over 60% of eligible women aged 50 years and over.

"Maori and Pacific Island women fare worse - only 40% over 50 years of age are being screened, and the breast screening programme doesn't collect the screening numbers for the women aged 45-49 in these ethnic groups.

"I cannot help but draw the conclusion that releasing those statistics would be an embarrassment to the Labour Government.

"While breast cancer is more common later in life, younger women get more aggressive and faster-growing cancers.

"For women aged 45-49, this is a Clayton's programme."

ENDS

Attached; parliamentary written question

Subject: 12915 (2007) Published - Health - Normal Reply

Question: For each year since the extension of BreastScreen Aotearoa to include women 45-69 yrs what is coverage rate as a percentage of the eligible population for women aged 45 to 49 years , 49 to 64 years and 65 to 69 years who participate in BreastScreen Aotearoa, and how does that figure compare with the coverage rate for Maori women in those same age groups?

Portfolio: Health

Minister: Hon Pete Hodgson

Date Lodged:26/07/2007

Answer Text: The attached document shows the coverage rates of eligible women attending the BreastScreen Aotearoa (BSA) programme for the 24 months from December 2004 to December 2006.

Attachment: 12915 attachment.doc

Date Received: 06/08/2007

Attachment for written question 12915 (2007)
_____________________________

In the following information, each coverage rate shown is the percentage of women in the eligible age group who attended BreastScreen Aotearoa (BSA) screening over the 24-month screening period from 31 December 2004 to 31 December 2006. The eligible population is the projected female population from the 2001 Census as at December 2006, the midpoint for the 2006/07 financial year.

The age-specific coverage rates of eligible women for the 24 months to December 2006 were:

50–64 year age group – 62.0 percent
65–69 year age group – 60.3 percent
45–49 year age group – 35.8 percent.

In the 24 months to December 2006, the overall BSA coverage rate of eligible women aged 50–69 years constituted 61.7 percent. The coverage rate of eligible Māori women aged 50–69 years was 41.6 percent and that of Pacific women in the same age group was 41.2 percent.

Coverage of Māori and Pacific women is significantly lower than overall BSA coverage of the general female population and other (non-Māori and non-Pacific) ethnic groups. BSA does not currently collect age-group-specific ethnicity data apart from the 50–69 years stated above.

As at 31 December 2006, significant regional differences exist between the eight BSA lead providers, with coverage for Māori ranging from 33 percent (BreastScreen Coast to Coast, MidCentral District Health Board) to 67 percent (BreastScreen South Limited, Christchurch).

From December 2004 to December 2005 BreastScreen South Limited was the first breast screening provider in the world to attain the coverage target of 71.9 percent for an indigenous population.

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