Herald wins right to name five suspect cervical screening labs

By FRANCESCA MOLD

The Herald has successfully fought to name five laboratories with smear reporting-rates comparable to those of disgraced Gisborne pathologist Dr Michael Bottrill.

The chairwoman of the Gisborne cervical cancer inquiry, Ailsa Duffy, QC, yesterday lifted an order suppressing the names of the laboratories after the Herald appealed to the Ombudsman.

But she ordered that the order remain in force until the Ministry of Health hands to the Herald an uncensored copy of the report containing the names.

The cancer inquiry suppressed the names of the laboratories in May because it felt it should honour a promise by health authorities to the labs that their identities would remain confidential.

The inquiry also felt the six-year-old statistics were too out of date to be useful.

The Herald's censored copy of the report shows that in 1994, five of 30 labs had the same or lower rates of abnormal smear reporting as Dr Bottrill.

At the time of her suppression order, Ms Duffy expressed concern the labs did not have the opportunity to make submissions on the report.

The Ombudsman is also considering another complaint from the Herald against the Health Funding Authority's refusal to release a second study, which identified more recent concerns about the performance of six laboratories.

The Duffy inquiry also decided yesterday against taking a legal dispute with health authorities to the High Court.

Ms Duffy said the fact that health legislation was about to be repealed meant a High Court ruling on legal questions raised during the inquiry would be redundant.

The inquiry had wanted the High Court to resolve whether it had the power to override a refusal by health authorities to release the names of women on the cervical screening register.

The information was to be used by researchers to audit cervical cancer cases and would have helped the inquiry to determine whether there were smear under-reporting concerns in other parts of the country.

But the imminent repeal of the Health and Disability Services Act meant an answer to the legal dispute would no longer be useful, said Ms Duffy.

In her ruling, she said the ministry had also admitted yesterday that there were "systemic problems" in the national programme.

This admission removed the need to have the audit carried out to answer the inquiry's terms of reference.


Herald Online feature: Gisborne Cancer Inquiry

Official website of the Inquiry