BreastScreen SA takes its free mammogram service to women aged over 40 throughout all South Australian areas
Three mobile breast-screening clinics visited every country centre in South Australia, backing up the seven BreastScreen SA fixed clinics in the Adelaide metroplitan area.
BreastScreen SA, South Australia’s state-government dedicated breast cancer screening programme, provided free screening mammograms (breast X-rays) every two years to women aged over 40.
The state-wide service screened around 100,000 women each year, aiming to detect breast cancer at an early stage, often before it could be felt.
Its service started in 1989 after one of 10 pilot screening projects around Australia, offering mammograms to women aged 50 to 64. The screenings expanded from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide’s Woodville, followed by Flinders Medical Centre and Royal Adelaide Hospital. The service, then called SA Breast X-ray service, opened a dedicated screening and assessment clinic in Wayville in 1991.
With the start of the national programme for early detection of breast cancer, South Australia’s service was Australia’s first to be fully accredited in 1994. The service was renamed BreastScreenSA in 1997 when its mobile screen unit made its first visit to Marla in the Pitjantjatjara Lands.
BreastScreenSA moved from Wayville to a state-of-the-art clinic in Adelaide city in 2015. In 2023, the service had seven fixed location clinics in the metropolitan area: David Jones Rose clinic (Adelaide city), Frome Road (Adelaide city), assessment clinic (Flinders Street, Adelaide city) and at Arndale, Christies Beach, Elizabeth, Hyde Park, Marion and Mount Barker. Three mobile screening clinics take the service to centres throughout South Australia. Since opening, BreastScreen had performed more than two million mammograms and reduced deaths from breast cancer by 41% to 52%.
In 2018, South Australia had some of the best breast cancer and cervical cancer screening rates in Australia. For those aged 50 to 74, the rates were measured as the highest in the country at 58.4%, well above the national average of 53.7%.
Using the latest X-ray technology, BreastScreen SA had a highly specialised team of breast-specialist radiologists, radiographers, medical professionals and administration experts. Each screening mammogram was independently read by at least two radiologists.
