New Facilities To Improve Screening Access Across Greater Wellington

A new dedicated breast screening site on Wellington’s Lambton Quay is the first step toward improving people’s access to quick and easy mammograms.

Located on level four at 276 Lambton Quay, the new site is the first of three planned for Greater Wellington with Wairarapa site set to open October this year and Kāpiti in 2024.

“These new sites are part of work started in 2020 to reconfigure the way we deliver breast screening for our people, whānau, and communities across Greater Wellington – Kāpiti, Porirua, Wellington, the Hutt Valley, and Wairarapa,” said Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast & Hutt Valley interim lead Hospital & Specialist Services Jamie Duncan.

“The move from mobile screening to dedicated fixed sites will give people certainty about where and when they can get a mammogram, rather than having to wait for the mobile unit to be in their neighbourhood. It also enables people with a disability and who can’t physically access the mobile unit, to be able to be screened closer to home. This – along with it being a year-round service – means the fixed sites give us the ability to increase the number of people we screen in a timely manner.”

Alongside the fixed sites Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast & Hutt Valley has made a considerable effort to explore options to improve recruitment and retention of medical imaging technicians (MITs). Regional Screening Services has established a new Breast and Cervical Equity Team that will work across Greater Wellington to improve screening uptake and address access inequities and other barriers for Māori, Pacific, and disabled people.

“Across our services we are continually looking at what works well and what we could do better. These new sites represent an exciting opportunity to improve the care and support that we provide and to help keep our people, whānau, and communities well.”

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