A critical question about whether ‘training was effective and relevant’ has been left unanswered in the BreastScreen report, Shadow Health Minister Rob Lucas said today.
Associate Professor Warwick Lee’s report, released yesterday, on page 6 concluded:
“The PACS audit did not find a conclusive factor that led to lower cancer detection rates. A definitive judgement on whether training was effective and relevant cannot be made. A more detailed investigation focused on all methods of training would be required. Based on material covered in supplied training documentation alone, there is a possibility there was not sufficient coverage in initial training of the nature of clinical image display in PACS, and the tools used to assess these images. This may have led to issues in clinical diagnosis of images across the reference period.”
“Clearly the issue of whether the Government’s delivering of training for the implementation of digital mammography was ‘effective and relevant’ is an absolutely critical question which cannot be left unanswered,” said Mr Lucas.
“It will obviously also be a critical question in any possible legal proceedings which might occur in the future.
“Minister Snelling must now ensure a further investigation is urgently conducted into whether the training was ‘effective and relevant.’
“Clearly this further investigation must also answer the question of whether any possible deficiency in the training program had led ‘to issues in clinical diagnosis of images’ during this period.”