Audit finds long waits for breast exams

Women have had to wait dangerously long times for mammograms at several of New York's public hospitals, a city audit released on Wednesday found. The audit examined waiting times at nine health care facilities in the 2009 fiscal year and found that the worst were at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, where women had to wait 148 calendar days for routine screening mammograms and 50 working days for diagnostic mammograms, when cancer is suspected. John C. Liu, the city comptroller, said in a statement accompanying the audit that the long waiting times "placed women in jeopardy" and violated the city's policies, which recommend waits of no more than two weeks for routine screening. He said women who had to wait long times for appointments were more likely to miss them.