News
BCNA
RAISING OUR VOICES B CNA is excited to report some great outcomes announcements at the start of February: • $1.5 million funding announced from our advocacy with two exciting by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to create a cancer |ata alliance, which will see state and territory cancer registries supported to work towards routinely collecting cancer stage and recurrence data. We are proud to have started this advocacy to have people with metastatic breast cancer counted. Read more here and on page 13. • The new Peta Murphy Breast Imaging Suite at Frankston Hospital, Victoria. BCNA had long been advocating for this service in Frankston, having become aware of the issue in 2020 after learning that patients at the hospital were being required to walk across a busy highway to access diagnostic imaging services. Read more about how BCNA welcomes new Peta Murphy Breast Imaging Suite at Frankston Hospital
Our advocacy continues full steam ahead this year, most recently with our submission to the Federal Treasury on genetic discrimination in life insurance underwriting. Dr Jane Tiller, an adviser in public health genomics at Monash University, has reported that fear of genetic discrimination is a barrier to people taking potentially lifesaving genetic tests. BCNA is therefore joining many other organisations and consumers in calling for a complete ban on the use of genetic testing results in life insurance underwriting. TURNING UP THE VOLUME IN TASMANIA D espite progress in breast cancer care over the past decades, gaps and inconsistencies in treatment, care and support remain. Around six years ago, BCNA became aware that there was no public diagnostic mammography service in Hobart. Despite us advocating for a service for the past six years, there is still no such service in Hobart. This means people needing a diagnostic mammogram in Hobart have to pay for one in the private system
or even travel interstate to access timely diagnostic mammography. The Tasmanian state election on Saturday 23 March gave us an opportunity to to dial up our advocacy for a public diagnostic mammography service. In the months leading up to the election we called on all candidates contesting the election to commit to short and long-term solutions so that women who present to their GP with symptoms of breast cancer are able to have a timely diagnostic mammogram without incurring out of pocket costs or having to travel interstate. We issued an open letter and travelled to Tasmania to meet with the candidates calling for urgent commitments to address the problem. Any delay to a breast cancer diagnosis risks the breast cancer progressing—or even metastasising —and so BCNA remains ready and willing to work with the new Tasmanian Government to fix this problem and restore basic healthcare in Tasmania.
For all of the most up to date news from BCNA, go to www.bcna.org.au/latest-news/
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April 2024 | Issue 97
Breast Cancer Network Australia
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