WellSouth To Improve Breast Screening As The Breast Screen Bus Hits The South

As the breast screening bus starts its Southern tour
today starting in Oamaru, WellSouth, the Primary Health
Organisation for Otago and Southland, is tasked with getting
more wāhine to the bus and improve breast check rates for
women in Southern.

Since October
2024, and for the first time, WellSouth now has the contract
from Christchurch-based ScreenSouth Limited, that
administers BreastScreen Aotearoa Services through
BreastScreen South and BreastScreen Otago Southland, the
national breast screening programmes for Te Waipounamu. The
agreement with WellSouth also specifies improving breast
screening access and outcomes for Māori and Pacific Island
women within the Southern region to address the equity gap
in screening coverage.

Each year
approximately 3,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer
in Aotearoa, with Māori and Pacific Island women
experiencing the highest rates of cancer. As part of this
agreement, around 570 women in Otago and Southland have been
identified as needing support to access BreastScreen
Aotearoa (BSA) mammograms. Not only Māori and Pasifika, but
also rural women who find it much harder to urban access
mammogram clinics.

Breastscreen
Aotearoa’s mobile clinic will be travelling across Otago
and Southland from January onwards to bring health checks to
the community. These are mobile clinic
dates:

Oamaru 13th Jan – 28th
Feb

Ranfurly 3rd March – 11th
March

Clyde 12th March – 13th
June

Balclutha 16th June – 25th
July

Gore 22nd Sept – 12th
Nov

Lumsden 13th Nov – 19th
Nov

Te Anau 20th Nov – 5th
Dec

In Otago and Southland, wāhine Māori and Pacific
women are screened around 10% lower than non-Māori and
non-Pacific, who are screened at around 69%. In Otago and
Southland, around 360 eligible wāhine Māori are
‘enrolled in a PHO’ (therefore in a general
practice) but not enrolled in BSA and around 50 Māori women
are not enrolled in either a PHO or BSA. For Pacific people,
the numbers are smaller; around 110 are not enrolled in BSA
but enrolled in a PHO and approximately 60 are not enrolled
in either.

Riiti Conway, WellSouth Equity Team Leader
Pou Whirinaki says bringing the clinic to communities will
help many wāhine prioritise this important
check.

“Ten percent may not sound like a big
percentage, but these numbers represent real people –
mums, sisters, daughters, aunts. If they have a screening
mammogram they are more likely to pick up cancer early. A
very quick and free health check every two years can lead to
better health outcomes,” she says.

Screening
mammography alone won’t prevent breast cancer, but
evidence shows that regular screening does help with early
detection. Women are offered a free mammography every two
years through the BSA programme.

Ms Conway says,
“Our Pou Manaaki Community Hub Coordinators will be
supporting more Māori and Pacific wāhine to enrol and
participate in the screening programme, by giving women a
call to talk with them about screening, offer to book their
appointments and assist with getting to them. This personal
support and having the mobile clinic visiting towns will
make it less daunting and less time-consuming to get the
check.

“We will also work with partners to promote
and encourage culturally appropriate services, or improved
resources to reduce barriers to access or communication,”
says Ms Conway.

“For us, it’s about making it
easier to go and get a mammogram, while also upholding the
cultural integrity of participants,” she
says.

Facts from BreastScreen Otago
Southland

• Wāhine Māori and Pacific Island
  women have a significantly higher breast cancer incidence
  and mortality compared to non-Māori and are almost twice as
  likely to die from breast cancer as non-Māori.
• The
  aim of breast screening is to find very small cancers before
  a lump can be felt in the breast. Early treatment has the
  best chance of success.
• Breast cancer is the most
  common cancer in New Zealand women.
• While screening
  mammography cannot prevent breast cancer, international
  evidence shows that mammography, when delivered through an
  organised screening programme, can reduce mortality from
  breast cancer.
• The risk of breast cancer increases
  as you get older. Three-quarters of women who get it are
  over 50.

To be eligible

• Be aged 45
  to 69 years of age (noting that the age range is likely to
  change to include participants up to 74 years of age in late
  2025)
• Have not had mammography within the previous
  12 months
• Not be pregnant or
  breastfeeding
• Be free from breast cancer. If
  previously diagnosed with breast cancer, be at least five
  years post-diagnosis
• Be asymptomatic
• Be
  eligible for public health services in Aotearoa New
  Zealand.

Note:

ScreenSouth
Ltd (SSL) is a non-profit organisation that administers
BreastScreen Aotearoa (the national breast screening
programme) for the upper and lower South Island through
BreastScreen South and BreastScreen Otago
Southland.

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