Smear tests boost

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 5

Smear tests boost

by

MARITA VANDENBERG

The Government is making $l4 million available this year, and $l2 million in future years, for the establishment of a national cervical cancer screening programme. The programme, to begin from the end of the year, will enable women at risk from cervical cancer to have regular smear testing, supported by regular Health Board registers for recall. The programme was one of the recommendations of the Cartwright inquiry into the treatment of cervical cancer at Auckland’s National Women’s Hospital. The Minister of Health, Ms Clark, in announcing the programme yesterday,

Health

said the establishment of a population-based screening programme had big financial implications. “This is not the case with work on many of the other recommendations in the Cartwright report such as establishing a standard for the hospital and the ethics committees of Area Health Boards and developing a national standard on informed consent and treatment protocols for the management of women’s abnormal cervical smears.” The programme will be nationally co-ordinated with services provided and managed at area health board level.

Ms Clark said some of the $l4 million would be used to establish the cervical screening register and administrative systems within the Health Department and boards associated with the programme. Recall procedures would ensure that all abnormal smear results were referred for followup treatment. The programme would also be able to be monitored. Ms Clark said part of the $l4 million would subsidise the cost to individuals of having a smear taken. A decision had still to be made on the level of that subsidy, she said.