Pillay Lynne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Pillay Lynne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:615;Page:11222] 
10.  
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour—Waitakere) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: What are the estimated impacts of increasing access to the free breast-screening programme for women aged between 45 and 70 years announced yesterday? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 I am advised that an additional 238000 women in the two age-group categories that have been added to the programme will be eligible for free breast-screening. It is estimated that five women’s lives would be saved in the 45 to 49 age group and 27 women’s lives in the 65 to 69 age group. 
Lynne Pillay 
: In light of representations to lower the age to 40 years why did she opt for lowering the age to 45 years at this time? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The current evidence supporting the expansion is strongest for the over-65 age group with an anticipated 46 percent reduction in the risk of death for a woman who is regularly screened in that age group through the expanded programme while including the 45 to 49-year-olds into the programme will result in a 21 percent reduction in the risk of death. We are waiting for the results from a large British study regarding the efficacy of screening women aged 40 to 45 and will re-examine that issue when those results are available next year. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: Why did she intimate on 18 November 2003 in answer to an oral question from me that she would not be reducing the age of eligibility for free breast-screening yet now 1 day before the 124000-signature breast-screening petition is heard at the select committee 4 days after Tim and Debbie Short’s day of shame protest outside a Labour Party MP’s offices and 1 week after Labour’s dramatic slide in the polls she has suddenly decided to reduce the age? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: For 1 year we have been examining in which direction we would increase access to the breast-screening programme. Initially I made it clear that the evidence was to take the age up to a woman’s 70th birthday. I also said to the petitioners and to this House that I was prepared to look at the evidence. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Is she aware that some women have concerns about the cumulative effect that exposure to radiation from successive mammograms may have on their health and will she therefore make freely available the alternative diagnostic tools such as ultrasound so that concerned women can choose an alternative to radiation-based screening; if not why not? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: My understanding is that the level of radiation used in breast screening is very low and for women between 50 and 70 it is every second year. In fact no screening programme in the world uses ultrasound on its own. 
Lynne Pillay 
: Will rural women with high risk factors be able to access breast-screening services? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Women who are at high risk of breast cancer and who would otherwise need to travel large distances to a fixed site will be able to access mobile screening services. Beyond the target group for the extended programme we are also looking at the use of mobile vans for other rural women to be able to access mammography.