A local woman says she is still waiting for a clear explanation as to why BreastScreen Aotearoa’s mammography bus has stopped visiting Wanaka.

The ‘BreastScreen Otago Southland Mobile Unit’, known by some as the ‘boob’ bus, used to visit Wanaka every two years. Eligible women based in Wanaka could have their regular mammograms done in a straightforward, quick appointment during the seven to 10-week period the mobile unit would park up at the Wanaka Lakes Health Centre.

More recently, the Wanaka visits have been scrapped in favour of requiring women to visit a new, temporary facility in Frankton, or visit the mobile unit in other towns such as Alexandra.

A local woman affected by the changes, Clare O’Connell, said her requests for the reasoning for the change have not been answered. It’s very straightforward, she said: “The bus used to come to Wanaka. It doesn’t anymore. Why not?”

Clare said she had been screened at the mobile unit three or four times since she reached the age where screening was recommended. Twice since she has been called to attend her appointment, only to discover it was on the mobile unit - but parked in Queenstown. She refused to attend, but after discovering women she knew had been diagnosed with breast cancer, she signed up once again. For her most recent appointment in April this year, Clare was sent to the mobile unit, this time in Alexandra.

“It’s the job of a mobile bus to travel to its patients,” she said.

BreastScreen Otago Southland (BSOS) lead provider manager Joan Miles told the Wanaka App: “Unfortunately there is not the capacity on the mobile schedule to visit all areas.”

Looking for local services? See Health | Beauty in your Wanaka App

Clare said the answer, which she said mirrored vague answers she had received from the organisation in the past, didn’t stack up. “It doesn’t matter where they park it, it is mobile. The fact is they won’t drive it an hour up the road.”

Joan told the Wanaka App the new, temporary Frankton facility would be replaced by a full service, permanent facility in the next few years. “It was agreed that this change, while inconveniencing some women for their biennial mammogram, will improve breast image services in the region by providing mammography in this region year round, rather than ten weeks every two years that the mobile mammography unit was previously available,” she said.

Clare said the changes to services had “opened a can of worms. We’ve got a facility in Queenstown [Frankton] but we’re not getting called there - why is that?” Clare asked.

Clare said a facility an hour’s drive away was not providing convenience. One of her biggest concerns was the fact that if women were required to travel and dedicate significant time to have their mammograms, it would be the less advantaged women who were affected the most. Those who would have a hard time taking a half day off work for the visit, who would struggle for the extra petrol cost or would have to make alternative childcare arrangements would be the ones most likely to stop getting the checkups.

“This is a group of up to 1000 women who need to have their breasts checked,” Clare said “There are more women in Wanaka needing the service than there were four years ago.They’ve gone backwards.”

The Ministry of Health has been approached for comment.

BreastScreen Aotearoa was launched nationally in December 1998. The publicly-funded programme offers free mammograms to eligible women between 45 and 69-years-old and aims to reduce deaths from breast cancer by regularly screening women who have no symptoms of breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in New Zealand women, with more than 600 women dying from it each year.

PHOTO: Supplied