Five months after announcing an intention to lower the recommended age for breast cancer screenings from 50 to 40, an advocate says the fact that Newfoundland and Labrador hasn’t put it into practice shows a lack of care for women’s well-being.
Jennie Dale, the co-founder of breast cancer screening advocacy group Dense Breasts Canada, told CBC News she met with health officials earlier this month to advocate for better breast cancer screening practices — and left the meeting feeling angered and worried.
“Our recent meeting showed that progress is very slow, if any, and we are moving a bit backwards,” Dale said last week.
Premier Andrew Furey announced in May that the province would be taking “immediate action” based on a recommendation from the Canadian Cancer Society, which urged provinces and territories to start breast cancer screening programs at age 40.
At the time, officials said the change would allow 34,000 more women to be eligible for the provincial breast cancer screening program — but it would take time to ensure the proper resources were in place to accommodate the change.
Those changes still haven’t been implemented.
A statement from a spokesperson for the Department of Health said N.L. Health Services has been mobilizing efforts and expects changes to be in place “in the coming months.”
Dale believes that’s not good enough.
“The women of Newfoundland do not have the same chance at finding breast cancer early as women in rest of the country,” she said. “They’re definitely going to fall through the cracks.”
As of Oct. 8, eight provinces in Canada have either implemented breast cancer screening at 40 or 45 or announced the date they intend to do so. Quebec hasn’t announced an intention to change, making Newfoundland and Labrador the only province in Canada to announce the change and not implement it.
“Women’s health is not being prioritized in Newfoundland. So it was very ironic to me that this was well-being week, when this was the week that I spoke to leadership and was told no timeline,” she said.
Dale said that while the medical field is experiencing a shortage of mammogram technologists, other provinces have been able to find the resources to implement the change.
Province expects changes by early new year
John Hogan, Newfoundland and Labrador’s minister of health, says that work is underway.
Hogan told CBC News Wednesday that the province has directed N.L. Health Services to purchase two new mammography machines — one for St. John’s and one for Grand Falls-Windsor — to help cover the additional patients that reducing the screening age will bring into the system. That will cost about $805,000, he said.
Newfoundland and Labrador announced in May that it would be changing the recommended age for women to begin breast cancer screening to 40. It’s now October, and as the CBC’s Alex Kennedy reports, that change still hasn’t been implemented, which one advocate says is a large step backwards.
“That is the main thing. I mean you need the equipment. If we just have people coming in now with that 10-year [age] difference, obviously we don’t want to clog up the system,” Hogan said.
“It does take a little bit of time to act on policy decisions, so we do hope to have this up and running and the policy implemented early in 2025.”
Jerry Earle, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees — who represents the technologists working in the province — says incorporating 34,000 women into the program will need all hands on deck.
“I think when these plans were in place, one of the things that should have been looked at [was] making sure we had the proper human resources when we made that announcement,” Earle said.
“They are working short staffed. They are expected to put in additional time. If we’re going to talk about extending hours of service, which even some of the staff would suggest that we do, we need additional resources. We can’t tax that onto existing staff that are already meeting excessive workloads.”
Asked to respond to Dale’s comments that the province isn’t prioritizing women’s health, Hogan said the province is committed to seeing the work to bring the screening age down — and ensuring screening is available through self-referrals — through.
“We want to see them get that screening. And this is all part of listening to evidence and acting on evidence. Of course it does take some time to implement these policy changes in any situation like that,” he said.
“Early detection is obviously going to lead to women having earlier treatment, which will be less invasive treatment, which will lead to healthier and better outcomes for these women.”
Changes to breast density info also needed
Dale is also challenging the province to better share information on breast density with women who are screened.
Breast density is key in screening, as dense breast tissue can often hide cancer cells on a mammogram. Newfoundland and Labrador currently only informs women of their breast density if they are in the highest density category.
Most women don’t fit in that category, Dale said, leaving them without all the information they need to make informed decisions.
“They can be walking around with breast cancer and think they’re fine because their mammogram was fine. So it’s a dangerous situation, it’s a discriminatory situation, and Newfoundland is behind the entire country on that issue.”
Hogan didn’t commit to making the change when asked by CBC News, but said the province will always look at best practices when it comes to information sharing in health.
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