Insurer and care provider icare has brought its lung screen trailer to Nowra, NSW, to provide health monitoring to local employers and their employees who work with hazardous substances, such as asbestos and crystalline silica.

This stop, part of a wider icare program to bring essential services to regional areas across the state, marks the icare Lung Screen Unit's fifth visit to a regional NSW town this 2018, with the insurer aiming for 35 regional visits this year.

The ‘one-stop shop’ mobile respiratory screening service includes an X-ray room, advanced lung function testing equipment, and a medical practitioner to conduct the examination. 

Chris Koutoulas, icare general manager for dust diseases care, said the program aims to provide regional areas the same access to specialised health monitoring as other metropolitan areas.

“Bringing our mobile Lung Screen Unit to at-risk workers, we can provide them peace of mind, save them valuable time, and minimize disruption to their day,” Koutoulas said. “The top four industries that use our mobile lung screen service to screen their workers are energy, local council, construction, and manufacturing – industries which make up over 37% of Nowra’s workforce.”

icare said the screening provides local businesses assurance about the health and safety of their workers.

“From as far south as Griffith to as far north as Tweed Heads, we’re making it easier for employers in NSW to proactively provide their workers with essential health monitoring for potential dust diseases,” Koutoulas said. “In 2016-17, our Lung Screen Unit travelled more than 50,000 kilometres across metropolitan and regional NSW and conducted almost 2,500 lung screenings of at-risk workers. In 26 of these screenings, a dust-related lung abnormality was detected.”

icare’s Lung Screen Unit will be returning to Nowra in 2019.

Employers who are interested in taking advantage of the health monitoring service may contact icare for inquiries and to arrange a booking.

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