Putting profits before breast cancer - The Australian

Kate Bianco is still waiting to undergo surgery. Picture: Lorimer Peter Source: The Daily Telegraph

BREAST cancer survivors are waiting 12 months or longer for reconstructive surgery because plastic surgeons are too preoccupied with high-paying cosmetic procedures.

Patients can undergo the surgery in a public hospital fully funded by Medicare but face long waiting lists, or through the private sector, where out-of-pocket expenses can total $20,000.

Past president of the Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery Dr Russell Knudsen said plastic surgeons were spending more time doing private cosmetic work than public because it "pays well".

"Some of the plastic surgeons don't give a lot of time to the public system," Dr Knudsen said. "How can the waiting list go down if the plastics guys are spending most of the time in private land doing cosmetic stuff?"

Hospital budgeting was also a problem, with operating theatres scheduled for limited elective surgery, he said.

Professor John Boyages, author of the book Breast Cancer: Taking Control and breast oncologist at Macquarie University Hospital, said patients were not being advised they could have their breasts reconstructed when they had a tumour removed.

He said it was nonsense to be told reconstruction might mask a cancer's recurrence.

Kate Bianco, a 42-year-old nursing assistant and mum-of-six from Muswellbrook, north of Sydney, was told she had to wait nine to 12 months to have her reconstruction.

She had a single mastectomy last April after being diagnosed the previous month. "It's hard to have one breast taken off. It's horrible," Ms Bianco said.

"You think: I'm not doing this because I want to have bigger boobs. I'm doing this because I've been maimed from the surgery. I just want to feel like a woman again."

She said in nearby Newcastle, there was only one plastic surgeon who did breast reconstructions but she could not get a consultation with him until December this year.

She said private Sydney clinics quoted her $30,000 to reconstruct one breast, double the cost of the average breast enlargement.

"I don't know how the hell that works," she said. "It's like they prey on women who need it most."

A Breast Cancer Network Australia spokeswoman said waiting times were "definitely an issue" although waiting times had improved due to more funding by the state government in recent years.

The network says only 12 per cent of women were undergoing reconstruction after cancer, with the main barriers being long waiting lists in public hospitals and high out-of-pocket costs in the private sector. One Tasmanian woman surveyed by the network in 2010 waited four years for her surgery.