United Voice News
A new campaign launched this Thursday, 15 October on the Gold Coast, will aim to fight government plans to limit access of Queensland women to Breast Screen services.
LHMU Health and Aged Care Coordinator Jenelle Head said Breast Screen services were delivered to 256, 000 Queensland women annually, however with a current shortage of Breast Screen radiographers, demand for the service will not be met.
“The tragic outcome of this is that breast cancer will go undetected and women may die as a result,” Ms Head said.
“The LHMU is extremely concerned that QHealth- who manages the service in Queensland- has done little to address the radiographer shortage.”
The LHMU has called for immediate government action to address workforce capacity issues within BreastScreen Australia.
The union – which represents more than 1800 radiographers throughout Queensland – says successive state and federal governments have failed to address the issue for several years.
“Women from certain age groups will be at risk due to a recommendation from the BreastScreen Australia Evaluation Report that suggests they be barred from having a free mammogram,” Ms Head said.
“The recently released government report states that radiographers are the main constraint of capacity shortages.
“On average it takes 26 weeks to fill a vacant radiography position across Australia. Statistics shows that workforce gaps are forecast to widen further over the coming years with increased demand and population growth.
At the moment due to workforce issues we can only screen 56 percent of the target population and we should be closer to 70percent.
“The job also demands technical knowledge and well-developed communications skills as female patients often have a high anxiety level.”
Ms Head said the solution did not lie in the introduction of a lower qualified workforce or restricting the age accessibility to the program.
LHMU has negotiated a labour agreement with BreastScreen Queensland to recruit fully qualified professional radiographers from overseas to assist as an interim measure in meeting this demand.
The LHMU also calls on the Government and QHealth to address the accessibility and intake to university to study a Bachelor of Science - Medical Radiation Technology and a variety of other workforce recruitment and retention measures.
