Cancer memorial plaque found

Photo / Martin Sykes

The plaque that was declared missing from the old National Women's Hospital has been found - 300m from where it was placed after the Cartwright inquiry.

Obstetrician and gynaecologist Tony Baird has written to the Herald, taking credit for recovering the plaque, placed by the Women's Health Action Trust in 1993.

"It is still in the grounds of the Green Lane site, in the memorial garden for National Women's and neatly mounted by the stone wall that forms the boundary with Cornwall Park," he said.

The plaque was placed to commemorate the work of two of the doctors who spoke out against what the inquiry found to have been an unethical study into cervical carcinoma.

Women's health campaigners were horrified to find on August 5, the 22nd anniversary of the public release of the inquiry report, when they went to pay their respects at the plaque, that it had been removed.

The Auckland District Health Board said yesterday that the plaque had been found. It was now in the "National Women's MemorialGarden".

It was not known when or why the plaque was moved. It was undamaged and had been properly cemented into the ground at its new location.

Women's Health Action director Jo Fitzpatrick said she was pleased the plaque had been found. But she wanted it returned to its original site under a pohutukawa tree which was planted as part of the memorial when the plaque was first placed.

The site had been chosen because it close to where the two doctors, Jock McLean and Bill McIndoe, worked.

But the board's chief executive, Garry Smith, said the next step was yet to be determined.

"We're pleased it has been located. We will look at the options and discuss these with the interested parties."