Cervical Cancer Transfer to Build on Success

Health Minister Bill English today announced the transfer of the operational part of the National Cervical Screening Programme from the Ministry of Health to the Health Funding Authority.

"The change is effectively administrative. It is important because it brings together two formerly separate parts of the programme. The Ministry of Health handled the national co-ordination and the Health Funding Authority purchased for the programme," Mr English said.

"The HFA is committed to continuing and improving the programme. Current safeguards for information about women's results are set out in legislation and will be maintained.

"Neither the public nor the people who carry out the screening should be affected during the transfer which is expected to take place before May. Funding for national co-ordinating functions will transfer to the HFA with the programme.

"The National Cervical Screening Programme has been successful and the transfer will build on that success. To date, the programme has enrolled 85 percent of all eligible women, two years ahead of the original schedule," he said.

"Once a woman is enrolled she has a better chance of regular checks and if she has any signs of cancer these will be picked up early. The earlier the precursors of cervical cancer are detected the better chance of successful treatment.

"Although the benefits are expected to take time to flow through, to date, indications show a fall in both the number of women diagnosed with cervical cancer and the number of women dying from cervical cancer following the introduction of the programme in 1990," Mr English said.

"However, there is still considerable work to be done particularly to reach Maori and older women.

"While the incidence for Maori women is dropping, it is still higher than for all women. It is particularly important for Maori women aged between 20 and 70 years to be regularly screened," he said.

"There are an estimated 45,000 women aged between 55 and 70 years not yet enrolled in the programme who need to be screened regularly.

"The risk of this disease increases with age and an important message for women over the age of 55 is that they still need to be screened," Mr English said.