Prevention sought as health system focus

Press, 1 June 1988, Page 7

Prevention sought as health system focus

PA Wellington Preventing health problems instead of just coping with them should be the focus of the health system, said the Minister of Women’s Affairs, Mrs Shields.

Speaking on the International Day for Women’s Health, she said a lot of heartache and a lot of lives could be saved if measures were taken to detect symptoms of health problems at the earliest possible stage. “The obvious example is testing for cervical cancer, a disease which kills 100 New Zealand women each year,” she said.

It was estimated that one in 28 New Zealand women born about 1957 could expect to develop invasive cervical cancer if nothing significant was done. The rate of death from cervical cancer was nearly three times higher among Maori women than the rate in the rest of the population, Mrs Shields said. Women on low incomes were another highrisk group. In its submissions to the inquiry into the treatment of cervical cancer, the Ministry had recommended that a national screening programme be set up which would target

those two groups. A national screening programme would have, to make testing available from a variety of sources, such as women’s health centres, workplace clinics and union clinics, as well as general practitioners. The inquiry had generated a lot of concern and more women were becoming aware of the need for regular smears, she said, but many women preferred to have another woman take their smears. If nurses or women in the community were trained to take smears, more women might arrange to be tested.