Doctor sure reading mistakes were fatal

By FRANCESCA MOLD

An Australian gynaecologist has become the first medical expert to state unequivocally that some Gisborne women developed fatal cervical cancer because their disease was not picked up during smear screening.

Dr Gerard Wain, director of a New South Wales cervical screening programme, reviewed the medical records of nine women whose smears were misread by Dr Michael Bottrill.

Dr Wain told a ministerial inquiry that in some cases the delay in diagnosis had no serious medical consequence, but "this has tragically not been the case for many others."

"It is clear that several women have lost the chance to have their cervical pathology diagnosed at a treatable point and gone on to develop advanced and fatal cervical cancer."

Figures given to the inquiry yesterday show that 292 of 12,000 women whose slides were re-read by a Sydney laboratory have died. Seven of the women are confirmed as having died of cervical cancer.

Dr Wain said Kathleen Ward, a 53-year-old who died of cervical cancer last month, had "suffered considerably from the failure to diagnose at an earlier stage."

Mrs Ward's smears were reported by Dr Bottrill in 1995 and by Gisborne Hospital a year later as normal or within normal limits.

In the next few years, she suffered symptoms including heavy bleeding, vaginal discharge and pain. A scan last year found that she had a cancerous mass in her cervix and the wall of her bladder.

Dr Wain said it was likely the abnormality would have been present at the time of her first smear in 1995 but had not been diagnosed.

In response to questions from panel chairwoman Ailsa Duffy, QC, Dr Wain described Dr Bottrill's level of under-reporting as "as bad as it gets."


More Herald stories from the Inquiry

Official website of the Inquiry