Royal Hospital for Women buys its own mammogram machine

The only dedicated hospital for women in NSW finally has its own mammogram machine – after raising the $500,000 needed themselves. The purchase came a month after breast cancer survivors bared their scars in a desperate bid to raise funds.

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The Royal Hospital for Women finally has its own mammogram machine — but it had to raise the $500,000 itself.

Last month The Sunday Telegraph revealed the only dedicated hospital for women had to borrow a mammogram from Breast Screen NSW, which only allowed access to the machine three days a week, leading to longer wait lists.

Readers were shocked to hear of the plight of the hospital’s Breast Care Service, which was in urgent need of its own machine to service more than 2500 patients a year from all over the state for diagnosis.

Breast Cancer survivors Monique Correy and Sue Yarwood went public to help raise funds for a mammogram machine for the Royal Hospital for Women. Picture: Tim Hunter.

RHW Director of Breast Care services Dr Alex Matthews said it was “bizarre” the hospital did not have their own.

“I think it is pretty poor. We need the ability to diagnose and manage breast disease promptly and that means state of the art equipment, no borrowed machinery,” Dr Matthews said.

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The Royal Hospital for Women Foundation’s annual fundraiser held last month raised over $560,000 to purchase a 3-D mammogram machine. Machines cost as much as $500,000 but running costs are expensive.

Breast cancer has a 91 per cent five-year survival rate due to early diagnosis.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in Australian women and accounts for about 29 per cent of all new cancers in Australian women. One in seven will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.

The hospital had to raise the $500,000 itself for the mammogram machine.

Trish O’Brien, the chief executive of The Royal Hospital for Women Foundation said the new state-of-the-art machine will be in addition to the shared mammography machine, increasing screening capacity.

Statistics show that early detection and immediate treatment is key to improved breast cancer survival rates.

“The new machine will mean that the dedicated staff at The Royal’s NSW Women’s Breast Centre are equipped with their own most up-to-date 3-D mammogram machine,” Ms O’Brien said.

“Meaning more women (getting) faster and more thorough diagnosis with local biopsies will result in earlier treatments for breast cancer — and more lives will be saved.

Monique Correy pictured with Sue Yarwood said the machine will “change the lives of women”. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“Thousands of women from all over NSW every year will now have access to earlier detection, assessment and timely holistic treatment under the one woman-centric roof at The Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick.”

Breast cancer survivor Monique Correy, who bravely posed for The Sunday Telegraph to highlight the issue, was impressed with the fundraising effort.

“That’s incredible, great work. It will change the lives of women because early diagnosis is important for survival,” the 27-year-old from Double Bay said.

Dr Matthews said, while it was good the money had been raised, he wanted to see more funding from the state government.

“We need one million-plus recurrent funding for equipment maintenance,” he said.

Originally published as Royal Hospital for Women buys its own mammogram machine