Health chief blocks cancer call

By FRANCESCA MOLD

Director-General of Health Dr Karen Poutasi has refused to comply with a request from the Gisborne cervical cancer inquiry to provide crucial information identifying women diagnosed with the disease in the past 10 years.

The team heading the inquiry yesterday said it would refer her refusal to the High Court.

The information she is withholding comes from the national cervical screening register.

Last month, the panel investigating under-reporting of cervical smears in Gisborne told Dr Poutasi to provide details of women diagnosed with cervical cancer in Tairawhiti, eastern Bay of Plenty, Northland and Otago.

Dr Poutasi said last night that she could not supply register information identifying women because of a watertight legal barrier imposed by Section 74a of the Health Act. Her decision had been made after receiving Crown Law Office advice.

"I believe we have gone as far as legally possible to facilitate the inquiry's request," she said.

The information requested under the Commissions of Inquiry Act included "papers, documents, records or things" held by screening register which could then be compared with cases listed on the Cancer Register.

The matching of information held by the two registers would have enabled Otago researcher Professor David Skegg to find out whether cervical smear under-reporting could be happening in other regions.

It is not known if the research can be done without the screening register information.

Dr Poutasi said the ministry wanted the research to be done.

She said health officials were advising the Government on options for allowing future audits of the information held by the national screening register.

But inquiry committee chairwoman Ailsa Duffy, QC, said the legal dispute must be resolved before the panel could report to the Health Minister on all seven terms of reference set down for it.

The terms of reference include an instruction to determine whether the under-reporting of smears was an isolated problem in Gisborne or could be happening in other areas.

Ms Duffy said the committee wanted to refer the legal argument to the High Court.

She said questions which must be answered included whether Section 74a should override the committee of inquiry's power to issue a summons.

Other issues were the role of the Bill of Rights Act, the Official Information Act and the Privacy Act and whether consent from women was needed before identifying information was released.

The panel will hear submissions about the High Court referral at a special sitting in Gisborne on Monday.

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