No money for more cervical examinations

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 5

No money for more cervical examinations

By

SARAH SANDS

A move to reduce the waiting list for colposcopy — an examination of the cervix with a special microscope — was rejected by members of the Canterbury Hospital Board health services committee yesterday because of the board’s financial problems.

A board member, Mr David Close, had moved that the board spend $15,000 to process 219 women from, the waiting list for colposcopy.

The list had increased from two weeks to two months in the last year and it was important for the board to reduce the waiting time, he said. “I suggested last month that we should prepare for the flood that is likely to come as a result of the publicity (about cervical cancer) by making sure we are coping with the existing workload. "Fifteen thousand is a minor sum for something that is of concern in the community. All the publicity has raised the anxiety level a great deal.” The board’s medical superintendent-in-chief, Dr Ross Fairgray, said that to reduce the waiting

list would need another 40 clinical sessions at a cost of $15,000. Canterbury had about 20 cases of cervical cancer each year with about 10 to 15 deaths, he said. “We need to remember the frequency of cancer of the cervix. Breast cancer is five times as high and cancer of the colon is higher than that.” Reducing the waiting list for colposcopy is not simply a matter of “throwing money” at it, said another board member, Mrs Caroline Cartwright. “There are problems further down the track with the number of medical specialists we have to do the cytology. If they are not trained to do it, giving them money will not solve the problem.” The chairman of the committee, Mrs June Gar-

diner, said that before money could be given to colposcopy, more investigations would be needed into the possible effect on other services. The board was already faced with saving $l5 million this year to stay within its budget, she said. A board member, Dr Jocelyn Hay, said that many areas of the board’s services needed money. "With cardiac surgery, people are waiting for two years with a serious lifethreatening illness knowing that they could drop dead from it at any moment. “We have to look at everything in a totally balanced way — it is not for us to leap in suddenly without considerable thought.” The committee voted against spending $15,000 on colposcopy services.