According to doctors at Kingston Health Sciences Centre, the COVID-19 pandemic’s consequences on the healthcare system are a major cause of the current backlog in breast screening appointments.
COVID-19 directly increased the backlog in southeast Ontario by almost 11,500 persons. According to the hospital, this number excludes people who have not yet registered for the Ontario Breast Screening Program.
According to KHSC Radiologist Dr. Doris Jabs, “With the multiple shut-downs throughout COVID and as people have naturally stayed at home during the pandemic, we have observed a major increase in the number of patients overdue for breast screening.”
“We strongly want to emphasise that breast screening should resume right away. The best way to detect cancer early, when it is more treatable, when patients have far higher survival chances, according to her, is through proactive screening.
A mammography, which is an x-ray of the breast tissue, is used for breast screening.
The procedure, according to the hospital, takes ten minutes to conduct and can detect malignancies that are too small to be felt and are less likely to have spread to other parts of the body before they have manifested symptoms.
Because many people with breast cancer have no prior family history of the condition, screening is extremely important, according to Dr. Jabs.
Since the epidemic, the Kingston, Ontario, hospital reports a decline in breast screenings.
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