Thousands more Victorians are to have better access to life-saving breast cancer screening and specialist care with the establishment of eight extra permanent BreastScreen services.
Announcing the service locations, Premier Daniel Andrews said five new permanent breast screening services would be established in the Local Government Areas of Whittlesea, Casey, Greater Geelong/Surf Coast Shire, Melton and Moreland on or before by January 2025.
“Three temporary sites in Craigieburn (Hume), Pakenham (Cardinia) and Hoppers Lane (Wyndham) will also be converted into permanent sites with greater capacity,” Mr Andrews said.
He said the funding allocation in the Victorian Budget 2022/23 would support the expansion of BreastScreen Victoria’s Reading and Assessment services (RAS) in Parkville and Monash.
“It will also support strategies designed to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women accessing services,” The Premier said.
“While breast cancer mortality rates have decreased by almost two per cent a year since 1994, in 2020 alone 4,575 Victorian women were diagnosed with breast cancer and 766 died from the disease,” he said.
“BreastScreen Victoria currently provides services at 46 permanent screening clinics.”
Mr Andrews said about six per cent of BreastScreen Victoria clients were called back to a RAS for further investigation.
He said the service provided free two-yearly breast screenings for eligible Victorians without symptoms.
