Around 1 in 7 women can expect to be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
Dr Anita Munoz from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners says doctors have observed a drop in the numbers of women coming forward for routine screening in the recent past, and delays in getting appointments if they're sympomatic.
"We're being told, certainly from my patients, that BreastScreen has really caught up (with the backlog created by COVID restrictions) now and there aren't big wait times to have routine screening mammograms done. We do know that in imaging providers that do the mammogram and ultrasound to actually look at a symptom or look at a lump that sometimes there can be some delays in getting those tests done, and that's because we continue to have problems such as the furloughing of medical staff who contract COVID. And so the system, the health system, continues to be affected."
The statistics back up the anecdotal experiences, with data suggesting almost 140,000 fewer mammograms were performed in 2020 compared to 2019.
