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The ABC can reveal South Australia's public breast cancer screening service used patient information to conduct research without ethics approval. Almost one hundred women who accessed the service also had their information used for the research without their consent. The governing health network has apologised after an Ombudsman's investigation.

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00:02Damning findings, which call into question research at Breast Screen SA.
00:08They failed to seek ethics approval for that research, which is required, and to seek the informed consent of the
00:16women.
00:17Those findings made after a three-year Ombudsman's investigation into a Breast Screen SA study involving 99 women between 2020
00:26and 2021.
00:27This was a failure in relation to the standards that women expect when they're receiving healthcare from a public service.
00:37Patients diagnosed with new or enlarging fibroadenomas or benign lumps underwent repeat assessments for the study without consenting to the
00:46research.
00:47I am absolutely certain that those clinicians who work in Breast Screen would be appalled.
00:54The CEO of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network told the ABC that, at the time, Breast Screen SA believed
01:01the study formed part of its ongoing commitment to improve care for women.
01:06But the Ombudsman found the service made administrative errors.
01:10Participants should be provided with the opportunity to provide informed consent to that research.
01:16National and state guidelines make that very clear.
01:19The Central Adelaide Local Health Network initially rejected a recommendation by Ms Strickland to apologise and issue a public statement
01:27about the errors.
01:28It told the Ombudsman doing so could have an unintended consequence of impacting the effectiveness of the service.
01:34But in late March, it wrote to the 99 women impacted, telling the ABC it unreservedly apologised.
01:42The Ombudsman has welcomed the apology.
01:45And while the war is skinless, theå¼· Thank you.
01:49Avocats
01:49And
01:49Oyne
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