BREAST SCREENING BOOST IN CRAIGIEBURN TO SAVE LIVES

Thousands more Victorians in Yuroke will have better access to life-saving breast cancer screening and specialist care close to home under a multi-million-dollar investment from the Andrews Labor Government.

Member for Yuroke Ros Spence MP today announced a permanent breast screening service in Craigieburn – giving more Victorians access to vital preventative breast scans and specialist treatment to find cancer early.

The new service is one of eight additional permanent BreastScreen Victoria services across the state as part of a $20 million boost in the Victorian Budget 2022/23 – delivering breast screening services to an additional 36,000 eligible Victorians every year by 2026.

The funding will 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.

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.

BreastScreen Victoria currently provides services at 46 permanent screening clinics. About six per cent of BreastScreen Victoria clients are called back to a RAS for further investigation.

The Victorian Cancer Plan 2020-2024 has set ambitious targets to reduce the harm caused by all cancers and save 10,000 lives by 2025.

BreastScreen Victoria provides free two-yearly breast screens for eligible Victorians without symptoms. If you are due to be screened, book an appointment by calling 13 20 50 or visiting www.breastscreen.org.au.

Quotes attributable to Member for Yuroke Ros Spence MP

Thanks to earlier detection and better treatments, more Victorians in Melbourne’s outer north are surviving breast cancer. We’re now making it even easier to get screened with a permanent service right here in Craigieburn.”

Quote attributable to Minister for Health Martin Foley MP:

“When it comes to breast cancer, early detection is the key to survival. That’s why having a free, two-yearly screen is so important and could save your life.”