Wait times up for screening mammograms, says Health P.E.I.

General screening mammograms are booking into August at Charlottetown's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and June at Prince County Hospital in Summerside.

That's "a little bit longer" than health officials would like, said Gailyne MacPherson, director of diagnostic imaging at Health P.E.I.

"We've had some downtime in the last year with our machines," MacPherson said.

"We replaced our machines. Got new state-of-the-art machines. So, we lose a bunch of appointments and we haven't yet caught up with that."

Quite a bit of work goes into some of these new technological changes.— Gailyne MacPherson

Another issue causing the increase in wait times is missed appointments. On average there are about 40 missed appointments a month for mammograms, MacPherson said.

"We believe it is because people aren't really anxiously waiting for the test because they don't have any symptoms,"  MacPherson said.

"It's just easier to slip your mind if that's the case."

MacPherson notes there are two different streams for mammograms. People are prioritized if they have irregularities, symptoms, or a family history of illnesses such as breast cancer. Wait times for those appointments are only a few weeks on average. 

New online tool 'will be less frustrating'

However, there continue to be issues with screening appointments. There's a phone-in service to book and cancel, and Skip the Waiting Room is being used to remind people of their appointments. But MacPherson said there are issues with the system.

"We've been hearing people are having a hard time getting through on the telephone lines to book their followup appointment," she said.

MacPherson said an online tool is being developed to roll out early in the new year.

"For you to register for your screening mammogram it'll ask you a few questions and then someone will monitor that software and send you out an appointment without you having to get through on the telephone line," she said.

"It will be less frustrating than trying to repeatedly call and not get through."

The hope is after the online tool launches, a component will be added to allow people to cancel easily so that people who want screenings can be moved into the empty spots instead of them going unfilled, she said.

"Really we can only make one change at a time, quite a bit of work goes into some of these new technological changes," she said.

Health P.E.I. is also planning to follow up with people to ask why they missed appointments, MacPherson said.

For more information on breast screening in P.E.I., visit the program website or call 1-888-592-9888 to schedule an appointment. To talk with the provincial breast screening co-ordinator, call 902-894-2914.