Stewart Barbara: Health (National Cervical Screening Programme) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Stewart Barbara: Health (National Cervical Screening Programme) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:615;Page:11440] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 On behalf of New Zealand First it is my pleasure to rise and speak on the Health (National Cervical Screening Programme) Amendment Bill. New Zealand First supports this bill. We were really pleased to see the changes that were made. We know that this bill is of particular importance to the women of New Zealand and their families. The purpose of the legislation is to ensure that the programme is safe—and that includes all parts of the programme. Members of the Health Committee worked through all aspects of the legislation to ensure that the programme is robust. We know too that maximum numbers of New Zealand women need to be on this programme if cervical cancer morbidity is to be reduced. The figures show already that there are a million women participating in the programme and a 99 percent participation rate really speaks for itself. 
I must pay a tribute to the Minister of Health and her officials for ensuring that the concerns we had with the legislation were extensively discussed and the solutions worked through. I must also pay a tribute to the chair of the select committee and all the committee members for ensuring that the bill was the best possible thing for the women of New Zealand. We want the best possible programme and we want a gold-standard programme. Everybody deserves access to the best possible health care and access to the programme by the women of New Zealand will occur only if they are satisfied with the programme. This is a very positive programme for women’s health. 
New Zealand First was particularly pleased with the independent review committee requirement. The monitoring and auditing of practices and the results will assist in the elimination of under-reporting such as there was in Gisborne and the misdiagnosis that came to light in the Northland area. The bottom line is that we cannot afford to have misdiagnosis and under-reporting of abnormalities in any programme. We do not want any results to slip through the cracks in the way that has happened in the past. I think we have learnt from past mistakes and we will not repeat them and I think this legislation assists with that. The formation of the independent review committee is definitely a step forward for this screening programme. The requirements for the programme review committee and its membership are very clearly set out and women can have faith in the process that is outlined in this legislation. 
The report its tabling in Parliament and its subsequent public release will also ensure that the public of New Zealand have access to the data on the effectiveness and quality of the National Cervical Screening Programme which is vitally important. I must admit that initially I was one of the people who had some misgivings regarding the privacy of women’s primary-care records but I have worked through this issue. I am totally reassured by our select committee the Minister of Health and the ministry officials that access to primary-care records by screening-programme evaluators for evaluation purposes will be strictly controlled and controlled by the doctor’s practice and will be limited to information directly related to cervical screening. Audits of primary-care records already occur so this is nothing different. Unless this programme too is allowed full access to primary health-care records the programme evaluation would be compromised and the legislation would not be achieving its main purpose. That is something we do not want. We want the programme to achieve its purpose of reducing the number of women who have or are likely to have this tragic cancer. 
I particularly like the fact that every New Zealand woman on the programme will be notified as to the changes in the legislation and what is going to occur in this programme. The notification about access to their primary health-care records and of their ability to opt off the National Cervical Screening Programme will reassure many New Zealand women. I think that many women are not aware of the forthcoming changes and I can say that we all look forward to receiving this information in the mail. This programme is absolutely vital for the women of New Zealand. We want to ensure that the numbers of women on the programme are maximised as only then can cervical cancer morbidity can be reduced. The death rate now is very much reduced and we can attribute that to the programme we already have in place. 
 We all know that early detection of problems is the very best way to detect precancerous conditions which can often be treated before cancer develops. Early detection always has been and will continue to be the best prevention. New Zealand First looks forward to following the progress of this vitally important programme for New Zealand women and we totally support this legislation.