Bottrill report to set ball rolling on cancer project

By FRANCESCA MOLD

Health experts have begun work on developing a new national cancer control strategy expected to be recommended in a ministerial report due for release tomorrow.

The report into the misreading of thousands of cervical smears by former Gisborne pathologist Dr Michael Bottrill has been a closely guarded secret since it was handed to Health Minister Annette King last week.

But its contents will be revealed tomorrow at a special public meeting in Gisborne for the women affected by the cancer scandal.

Mrs King, Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia, the lawyer for Dr Bottrill, Christopher Hodson, QC, representatives of the Cancer Society and women's health advocates have confirmed they will attend the meeting.

Throughout the five-month inquiry last year, the Ministry of Health was heavily criticised for failing to properly develop, finance and run a national cervical screening programme over the past decade.

Many parties giving evidence at the inquiry agreed the programme should be taken away from the ministry and a stand-alone unit be set up as part of a national cancer control agency.

Inquiry panel chair Ailsa Duffy, QC, indicated she was seriously considering the suggestion by asking each party whether they would support the idea.

Cancer experts have said they would be surprised if Ms Duffy's report did not discuss the proposed agency and the issue of a national strategy to control cancer rates, predicted to rocket in the next decade.

The idea of a national strategy emerged from a workshop involving health workers, bureaucrats and politicians in 1999.

But there appeared to have been little attempt by health funders to follow up on the suggestion until after the Gisborne hearings into cervical cancer concluded late last year.

The ministry has contracted a cancer control trust, set up and financed by the Cancer Society late last year, to prepare a scoping report outlining options for a national strategy.

The director of the New Zealand Cancer Control Trust, Professor John Gavin, told the Herald the contract with the ministry was signed in February.

Work on the national strategy was under way and a report would be presented to the ministry by the end of June.

Dr Brian Cox, a member of the trust and director of the Hugh Adam cancer epidemiology unit at Otago University's Medical School, gave evidence at last year's cervical cancer inquiry about the need for a strategy.

It would look at what forms of cancer were expected to be prevalent in the years ahead, what treatments would be required, how to better prevent the disease occurring and the kind of workforce needed to manage patient care.

At the inquiry, Dr Cox also recommended setting up an agency with statutory responsibility for controlling cancer rates in New Zealand, which would be independent of Government health funders and policy makers.

Such an agency could be made responsible for the national cervical and breast screening programmes, their databases and monitoring and evaluation.

Dr Cox told the Herald the issue of whether such an agency was set up was unlikely to be resolved until the Gisborne report was released.

He said a national cancer control strategy was long overdue in New Zealand and he was pleased a scoping report had been commissioned by the ministry.

"It's a good initiative and good to see the Government is committed to the development of a national strategy."

He said developing the strategy was quite daunting.

"Traditionally in New Zealand, we haven't pulled those threads together or been very cohesive in the way we've managed cancer as a disease."


Herald Online feature: Gisborne Cancer Inquiry

Official website of the Inquiry