Breast scheme short of target

The Health Ministry's $22 million-a-year breast screening programme looks likely to fall short of its target, leaving about 27,000 eligible women not screened and at risk from undetected breast cancer.

Run by the national screening unit in Auckland, the programme aimed to reach 70 per cent of women aged between 50 and 64 in its first two years. However, 21 months into the programme it has screened only 56 per cent.

The ministry pays for the six programmes run throughout New Zealand.

In Otago and Southland, 63 per cent* of eligible women had been screened while BreastScreen Auckland and North had reached only 43.5 per cent, and in the Wellington region, only 46 per cent had been reached.

Registration and screening of Maori and Pacific women was low, particularly in the region from Manawatu to Taranaki and Hawkes Bay, where 26 per cent of eligible Maori had been screened, and in Otago and Southland, where 24 per cent of Maori and Pacific Island women had been screened.

The independent group monitoring the programme warned in January that low coverage rates put the scheme in jeopardy. It also noticed missing and inadequate data.

The group said the improved results were encouraging, however, and clinical director Julia Peters said the report showed strong improvement.

- NZPA

* This is a corrected report. The original version incorrectly stated that only 24 per cent of eligible women in Otago and Southland had been screened.