Two Queensland women given wrong cancer diagnoses after ‘biopsy mix-up’

Both women had undergone biopsies in November, after their mammograms at Rockhampton BreastScreen returned suspicious results.

One patient was incorrectly cleared of cancer, with her tumour going untreated for months, while the other reportedly underwent unnecessary surgery.

“While we are limited in what we can say due to patient confidentiality, we acknowledge the distress this incident has caused,” a spokesperson for Queensland Health told 9News.

“We have met with the patients to apologise and have offered support and care.”

“Work began immediately upon discovery of the error and to identify what solutions could be put in place to prevent the risk of this happening again.”

Government minister Tim Mander also acknowledged the distress caused by the error.

“The government’s thoughts are with those women who were affected by this, and we’re providing every bit of support that we can,” he said.

“Obviously, that’s something that we do not want to happen again, and so there’s investigations taking place at the moment.”

The department is encouraging women not to be deterred from using the BreastScreen program.

“We are committed to providing the best care possible to Queenslanders, who put their trust in us to look after them,” said the spokesperson.

“On rare occasions the system doesn’t get it right, but the community can be confident in the care we provide and in our commitment to addressing mistakes when they occur.”