Women in Sudbury are using the occasion of Breast Cancer Awareness Month to continue their campaign to persuade Health Sciences North leaders not to make cuts to the hospital’s Breast Screening and Assessment Service.
Breast cancer survivor Sharon Murdock and registered nurse Anne Matte, a founder of the 18-year-old service, have written a letter to HSN president and CEO Dominic Giroux, appealing to hospital leaders to leave the program intact. They are urging people who support them to do the same, asking supporters to write letters to Giroux, HSN board chair Nicole Everest and Health Minister Christine Elliott.
The women are asking people who write support letters to copy them to Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas, the New Democrats’ Health critic. Gelinas has started a petition, supported by Sudbury New Democrat MPP Jamie West, and the names on those petitions will be presented in the Ontario Legislature.
HSN revealed last month that it was planning changes to the Breast Screening and Assessment Service whereby breast surgeons would no longer consult with patients at the BSAS clinic on the fifth floor of the former Memorial Hospital site.
Women would continue to have mammograms and other diagnostic tests there, as well as some biopsies and other assessment procedures. But breast surgeons would no longer see patients at seven clinics a month at the Sudbury Outpatient Centre.
The city’s three breast surgeons, led by Dr. Rachelle Paradis, who has spoken out about the proposed changes, have been meeting with senior hospital leaders in an effort to preserve the program.
A compromise is being negotiated in which an average 1,000 women with abnormal mammograms and other breast tests would be seen at four surgical consultation clinics a month at the BSAS. That would mean about 1,000 of the 2,000 women a year who pass through the clinic would be referred to see surgeons in their offices.
Paradis shared concerns that women would fall through the cracks when referred to surgeons’ offices. That is because they would have to be scheduled in among patients being seen for many different surgical issues.
Some people have also expressed concerns that while some women’s breast screens appear to be normal, patients can have palpable lumps that may only be detected by surgeons.
“Research indicates that early diagnosis saves lives. Why is HSN regressing?” Matte and Murdock ask in their letter to Giroux.
“The surgical service, supported by a nurse navigator with the doctors on-site at HSN, is an absolute priority for any of us affected with breast issues and or breast cancer,” the women wrote.
In a statement, West said former patients of the BSAS have been reaching out to him, telling him that early detection saved their lives. “We need more investment into catching cancer early — not less,” said West.
The rookie MPP called out the Liberals for cutting and freezing hospital funding for years while HSN staff “do all they can” to provide good service.
HSN originally said it would save $270,000 a year by eliminating on-site surgical consultations at the BSAS. Administrators have since said they would be willing to fund surgical consultations to the tune of $70,000 to $80,000, and might seek funding from the North East Local Health Integration Network to top that up if it costs more.
HSN spokeswoman Maggie Frampton said HSN is hoping to implement changes to the program by the end of December. More details will be announced when the new model is established, she said.
Meanwhile, supporters of the Breast Screening and Assessment Service are stepping up their efforts to save the clinic in its entirety.
As well as the letter campaign, a group of Sudbury women, many of them retired nurses, will meet again next week to plan the next steps in their advocacy.
Some of them, members of the now defunct Breast Action Coalition, fought two decades ago to have all breast-related services – both screening and assessment – housed in a single program.
Hospital officials continue to emphasize that the BSAS is not closing. It currently offers four types of services – screening mammography, diagnostic imaging such as mammograms and ultrasounds, biopsies and navigation by a nurse to the next step in care. Often that next step is a consultation with a surgeon.
Patients will continue to go to the clinic at HSN’s Sudbury Outpatient Centre for all services except navigation, which often includes a consultation with a breast surgeon.
“We are working closely with our breast surgeons at the clinic to develop a new model to ensure patients continue to have timely access to consultation and care, while ensuring that those patients who are the highest priority are seen as soon as possible,” said Frampton on behalf of HSN. “Some consultation will continue to occur at BSAS.”
Murdock and Matte are asking people who support their call to keep breast health services together in one place to write to leaders expressing that wish.
They encourage people to personalize the letter they wrote to Giroux, Everest and Elliott, or to write letters outlining their personal experiences with the Breast Screening and Assessment Service.
