No trace of nurse after smear scare

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 47

No trace of nurse after smear scare

PA Auckland The Nursing Council has been unable to trace a young nurse feared to have had a positive smear test for cervical cancer wrongly diagnosed by an English doctor. The Liverpool Health Authority enlisted the help of the council to trace the nurse who was one of 911 women told their smear tests were clear when, in fact, they were positive or suspect The missing nurse, aged 25, left Liverpool after being wrongly diagnosed, moved to Oxford, then emigrated to New Zealand before the health authority could reach her. But the Nursing Council’s registrar, Mr lan Chote, said the woman was not on the register of nurses in New. Zealand. have checked the i-

register and we have used our imagination but we have not been able to trace her,” he said. The Liverpool Health Authority has managed to track down all but six of the 487 women whom doctors felt should have further tests or treatment A spokesman for the English authority said of the New Zealand nurse, “As far as we are aware from medical records, she is not in any immediate danger but it would be advisable for all the six missing women to be checked.”

A pathologist Dr Kathleen Lodge, aged 66, was found guilty of a "massive error of professional judgment for which there is no logical explanation” by an inquiry into the scandal.