Minister accepts more work needed on cancer screening

11.45am

Health Minister Annette King said today she accepted there was still work to be done to make the national cervical cancer screening programme the best in the world.

British cervical screening expert Euphemia McGoogan, who was appointed by the Government to report on the implementation of the 2001 Gisborne Cervical Screening Inquiry's recommendations, said in a report released today she doubted that New Zealand had yet achieved a fully effective screening programme.

In her final report to the Government, Dr McGoogan, an expert cytopathologist and senior lecturer in pathology at Edinburgh University, acknowledged a "vast amount of work has occurred" over the past three years.

She said a structured National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP) was emerging, but warned there was still much work to be done.

Ms King said she was heartened by Dr McGoogan's assessment that the NCSP continued to mature month by month "but I accept her warning that there is still much work to be done for New Zealanders to realise their hope of having the best cervical screening programme in the world".

"I'm pleased that she's noted that we've made considerable progress, that we've got all the elements of an effective and cohesive screening programme but obviously there are things we can improve," Ms King told NZPA.

She said in a statement that Dr McGoogan had likened the NCSP to a jigsaw puzzle.

"People know how many pieces there should be but we do not get the completed picture until each piece is connected to the other.

"Dr McGoogan says all the pieces of a National Cervical Screening Programme are present in New Zealand but they still have to come together to create a cohesive picture."

Dr McGoogan's criticisms include that the Ministry of Health had not thoroughly investigated the medical history of women diagnosed with cervical cancer since the Gisborne inquiry.

She expressed disappointment at the time taken to carry out a cancer audit. The Cancer Audit Group had overcome many difficulties and the audit was now progressing well. However, the outcome would not be known until the end of 2004.

"This will be three years longer than the six months recommended by the Gisborne inquiry," Dr McGoogan said.

Ms King said Dr McGoogan had acknowledged the difficulty in getting consents, from women and ethics committees, to be able to carry out the audit.

The insistence by women for the consent process and privacy in Dr McGoogan's view weakened the programme, Ms King said.

"Dr McGoogan is a strong advocate of access without informed consent by researchers and health professionals to an individual's health information and believes that an excessive concern with privacy issues can be harmful to health," she said.

However, when this was proposed in legislation currently before Parliament, there had been a backlash, the minister said.

Dr McGoogan also suggested the NCSP have access to a population register for inviting women for screening.

Ms King told NZPA the Ministry of Health was looking at this.

However, because New Zealand had a national health index it would probably not do this in the same way as Britain.

"We have well over 90 per cent enrolment already into the programme, much higher than the UK. We also have a higher participation than the UK.

"We're a much smaller country and the national health index probably for us is a better tool," Ms King said.

Her message for women was that the cervical screening programme was improving month by month.

"Since it was put in place ... it's made an impact on the incidence of cervical cancer and the deaths from cervical cancer."

In the 10 years from 1987 to 1997, deaths from cervical cancer dropped 44 per cent and the incidence rate of cervical cancer dropped by 39 per cent in the same period, the minister said.

- NZPA