Pain should not obscure screening success, says ministry

By FRANCESCA MOLD

Health officials have pleaded with the cervical cancer inquiry to reassure women about the achievements of the national screening programme.

In his final submissions yesterday, Kim Murray, for the Ministry of Health and the Health Funding Authority, said the programme seemed to have been successful overall because cervical cancer rates had dropped.

He asked the inquiry to pay attention to the programme's achievements in its report.

"Of course we feel the pain of lives lost but it is important to balance that," he said.

But panel chairwoman Ailsa Duffy, QC, said it was also important to be honest with women.

"It's all very well to say we should not discourage women from the programme. But we can't falsely promote a sense of confidence ... I'm sure the women of Gisborne would not be comforted knowing that rates of cancer overall have dropped."

In its submission, the ministry and HFA also urged the panel not to follow the example of past inquiries, particularly the Erebus disaster and the Winebox inquiry, which they believed had failed to achieve their full potential because of defects in the process and final reports.

The health authorities suggested the inquiry model itself on the Cartwright report into cervical cancer treatment at National Women's Hospital, which they suggest had "enduring authority."

This suggestion came despite criticism throughout the inquiry that health authorities failed over a number of years to implement many of the recommendations in the Cartwright report.

In contrast, the submission from the ministry and authority suggested it was political pressure to implement a programme that led to a "premature and difficult birth" for the national screening programme.

The submission also said the programme had been "let down by a serious lapse in the professional standards of a single pathologist combined with inadequate systems for the early recognition of an unacceptable level of under-reporting."

Also at the inquiry yesterday, Ms Duffy declined to lift a suppression order on financial details relating to Dr Michael Bottrill's laboratory, requested by the Women's Health Information Resource Trust.

Herald Online feature: Gisborne Cancer Inquiry

Official website of the Inquiry