The future of the Breast Screening and Assessment Service at Health Sciences North, as it operates today, is in limbo after a meeting between hospital management and breast surgeons did not produce anything definitive about planned cuts to the service.
HSN officials declined to be interviewed about the meeting, which was called after Dr. Rachel Paradis spoke out about how changes to the BSAS could increase the wait time for surgical consultation when women are diagnosed with breast abnormalities.
The BSAS houses the Ontario Breast Screening Program, where women have mammograms, diagnostic imaging such as breast ultrasound and biopsies. Those services are not expected to change.
What is to be eliminated are on-site consultations with surgeons about patients’ care and treatment. Paradis and women who have spoken out about the cuts say they don’t want to lose that component because it offers a quick turnaround time for women to meet with surgeons, allaying many fears.
Paradis said last week the time from diagnosis to surgical consultation could increase because medical results would go from BSAS to a patient’s family physician, who would then refer women to a surgeon.
As part of efforts to erase an $11-million deficit, HSN plans to cut the surgical consultation service, and save about $270,000, and refer patients to surgeons in their private offices for consultation.
The meeting Thursday morning was scheduled to address breast surgeons’ concerns about proposed changes to the service.
Paradis was not available for comment Thursday because she was in surgery.
HSN issued a statement after the meeting but spokesman Jason Turnbull said hospital officials would not agree to be interviewed by Sudbury.com.
HSN said in the statement that senior administration and surgeons involved with BSAS met to review options to develop a system in which patients would still receive timely care to surgical consultation without having to be referred through their family doctors.
One of those options would be bypassing the return of test results to family doctors who would then refer patients to surgeons.
The management team and surgeons will continue to discuss options for patient access to care when they meet again “in the near future,” said HSN in the written statement.
Earlier this week, a member of the senior management team urged Sudbury.com to contact the hospital for comment after the Thursday meeting.
According to the statement, HSN is going to develop a proposal for long-term sustainable funding for the Breast Screening and Assessment Service.
The service, which was established more than 15 years ago, has never received targeted funding the way the Ontario Breast Screening Program has.
Look for more reporting about reaction to proposed cuts to the BSAS later this week.
Carol Mulligan is an award-winning reporter and one of Greater Sudbury’s most experienced journalists.
