Funding boost for SA lung cancer screening

The RACGP South Australia Chair is urging smokers and former smokers to book an appointment with their GP, following the State Government’s $3 million funding boost to lung cancer screening.
 
The funding supports the rollout of the National Lung Cancer Screening Program, which launched on 1 July this year.
 
The SA investment, announced on Monday, aims to provide more lung cancer assessment and treatment programs across Adelaide, enabling patients diagnosed in the program to have quicker access to follow-up assessments and care.
 
It will support additional resourcing at all three of Adelaide’s Local Health Networks, including additional staff, extra bronchoscopy lists, and the establishment of a multidisciplinary conference to assess patients with pulmonary nodules.
 
SA Health Minister Chris Picton said the funding will ensure the National Lung Cancer Screening Program rolls out and integrates with the state’s health system ‘in the best possible way’.
 
‘I encourage all South Australians who are eligible for the [program] to book an appointment – early intervention support will help to save lives,’ he said.
 
RACGP SA Chair Dr Siân Goodson said she hopes the program will make screening more accessible to more people in the state.
 
‘This screening program means you can find out early and for free if your lungs have been affected by smoking,’ she said.
 
‘And more importantly, you can take action, so you live a longer and healthier life.’
 
With lung cancer the fifth most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in Australia, it is estimated the National Lung Cancer Screening Program will save 12,000 lives over the next 10 years.
 
The program provides free screening to high-risk patients, including those:

• aged 50–70 years
• who are asymptomatic, with no signs or symptoms suggesting lung cancer
• who currently smoke, or who have quit smoking in the past 10 years
• with a history of tobacco cigarette smoking of at least 30 ‘pack years’.

Dr Goodson urged ‘everyone in SA who smokes or previously smoked to book a consultation with your usual GP’.
 
She added that help is also available for younger smokers who do not meet the criteria for free screening.
 
‘We can talk about medications, counselling, and other treatments that are backed by evidence and the experience of former smokers,’ she said.
 
‘We can help you take back control from tobacco.’
 
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