Permanent radiologist appointed to Cairns as mammography and ultrasound services resume
A second critical mammography service will resume in Cairns with a full-time radiologist specialising in women’s imaging to be based permanently in the region from next month.
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A second critical mammography service will resume in Cairns with a full-time radiologist specialising in women’s imaging to be based permanently in the region from next month.
It comes after the Cairns Post launched Critical Condition, calling on state and federal governments to help reinstate the crucial service suspended in November.
Queensland X-Ray “temporarily” closed diagnostic mammography services because it could not find a permanent radiologist with wait times ballooning out to four months.
But delays are expected to drop significantly with the service returning from March 3.
Queensland X-Ray chief executive Dr Robert Clarke said it would ensure women have access to necessary care.
“We are pleased these services will resume from March 2025, alongside our other services,” he said.
“We have worked closely with Queensland Health throughout this temporary pause to ensure women in the Cairns region continue to have access to these critical services.”
Dr Clarke said with the ongoing workforce shortage of radiologists nationally it was important to expedite specialist pathways.
“We know there is an ongoing workforce shortage of radiologists, and expediting specialist pathways to assist with regional workforce capability will be critical,” he said.
“This is why Queensland X-Ray has commenced a dedicated training position for registrars focused on women’s imaging to support the public hospital training efforts in Brisbane.”
Queensland X-Ray is also working with partners to minimise the impact of the radiologist shortage, especially in women’s imaging in regional areas.
“Queensland X-Ray is separately working with stakeholders on solutions to ensure minimal impact to patients,” Dr Clarke said.
“Queensland X-Ray has a significant presence in the Cairns region and has been providing services for our patients for more than 30 years and will continue to do so.”
The news has been welcomed by patients including Sarah Sexton, 38 of Cairns, who travelled to Brisbane for mammogram tests to avoid long wait times.
She said having a radiologist based permanently in Cairns was seismic for the region.
“People power definitely works,” Ms Sexton said.
“I’m just happy we are getting seen by people in the big cities, they seem to forget about us a lot of the time and it’s expected we can all travel or just wait.”
Dr Aemelia Melloy, who specialises in breast surgery and first raised the impact of the closure, said she thrilled following the appointment.
“Several patients of mine will greatly benefit from being able to access imaging soon without having to travel,” she said.
“I appreciate Queensland X-Ray commitment to the community by reopening their service.”
Dr Melloy also acknowledged the hard work staff at I-MED as the remaining service operating the last few months.
“I-MED have been working so hard to keep the service going over the last three months,” she said.
But Dr Melloy stressed this was not the end of the fight.
“The poor medical funding of women’s imaging still needs to be addressed to fix the shortage or breast radiologists,” she said.
“Unfortunately, we’re not at all surprised by delays to breast imaging in Cairns,” he said.
Dr Shnier says the delays are due to a lack of specialists trained in breast imaging, a shortage which is exacerbated by underfunding of these services by Medicare.
“This is compounded by the fact that breast imaging services are underfunded by Medicare, meaning radiology practices are already struggling to make these services viable,” Dr Shnier said.
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Originally published as Permanent radiologist appointed to Cairns as mammography and ultrasound services resume
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