Women needing secondary screening after an initial mammography will have to travel 68 kilometres to the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail beginning in May.
The aging mammography equipment at the Nelson Kootenay Lake Hospital will be retired from use as of April 30 according to Thalia Vesterback, Interior Health diagnostic imagery operations director for the East Kootenay.
Vesterback said the film-based equipment lived a full life and Interior Health made the decision not to replace the Nelson-based machine. The diagnostic mammography machine was purchased for $350,000 in 2001 with funds raised by the Kootenay Lake Hospital Foundation in Nelson.
In September 2013, Trail raised $800,000 to purchase a digital mammography machine. Vesterback said the new equipment is needed in Trail to complement the regional breast surgical program that is based there.
She said on average two to 15 patients currently use mammography equipment two days a week in Nelson and four days per week in Trail. With the new digital equipment, she said they will have capacity to do more mammograms (as film does not need to be processed with digital) and meet the regional demand.
“Breast imaging is a specialty service and we need to do it at a high level of expertise,” she said adding that federal rules require a high visitation level for the radiologist and mammography technologist.
“No one is losing their jobs [in Nelson],” she said. “Interior Health is in contact with the KLH foundation about the disposal of the machine.”
IH communication officer Karl Hardt, explained Interior Health’s policy that equipment purchased through fundraisers can not be relocated or sold without consulting the donor.
Women aged 40 years and older can access mammograms for free and without a doctor’s referral through the mobile van provided by the BC Cancer Agency, which is part of provincial health services.
Vesterback said the mobile van visited Nelson four times in 2014. The screening program also has clinics in other Kootenay Lake area communities like Kaslo, Crawford Bay, and Balfour, Hardt said.
There are two types of screening. The screening provided by BC Cancer via a mobile unit are for a-symptomatic women. Vesterback said, “On average, a small amount of women, 10 per cent, will require follow-up.”
For this secondary screening, a patient would be referred by a doctor for a specific appointment where a radiologist interprets the diagnostic images right away.
“This will not limit access to services,” she said. “This will continue to meet the vast majority of needs in the area.”
She added that the mobile van will be receiving upgrades in the new fiscal year, which begins in April.
She said the decision not to replace the equipment in Nelson and having the new diagnostic in Trail does not put a patient’s health at risk explaining that mammograms are scheduled tests, not emergencies.
“It is a safe decision for the patient. While it can be a stressful exam, it is not emergent,” said Vesterback.
According to the BC Cancer agency, the mobile unit will be in Nelson again this March.
For general information on screening mammography visit www.screeningbc.ca/Breast/GetMammogram/GetaMammogram.htm.
As well for a “clinic locator” for screening mammography go to www.screeningbc.ca/Breast/GetMammogram/ClinicLocator.htm.
