Cancer tests for 2000 misread

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

Almost 2000 Gisborne women found out their cervical smears had been misread after the results were rechecked in Sydney.

Many of the women were advised of abnormalities that had previously gone unreported by Gisborne pathologist Michael Bottrill.

The former Health Funding Authority's third and final report of the investigation into cervical screening in Gisborne revealed yesterday that 18 per cent of the 22,976 smears from 12,099 women were found to be abnormal on rereading.

About 10,000 women got the same results from both the Sydney and Gisborne laboratories.

Of the 616 women the Australian laboratory found to have high-grade abnormalities or disease, Dr Bottrill had identified only 97 - about 15 per cent.

During a ministerial inquiry into the screening programme, it was reported three out of four of the seriously abnormal slides were misread. Yesterday's report lifted that to 85 per cent.

There have been nine cervical cancer deaths since the investigation began in 1999.

For the dozens of Gisborne women caught up in the health scandal, the revised figures are another blow.

"You thought you had heard the worst - now it has got worse than worst," said Raewyn Page.

"It brings a lot of anger up, which is very hard to deal with."

Wendy Ure said she was sick of apologies and platitudes from health officials.

Yesterday both the Director-General of Health, Karen Poutasi, and the National Screening Unit clinical director, Julia Peters, publicly extended sympathy to the many affected women and their families.

Mrs Page and Mrs Ure will be among those at a public meeting in Gisborne on Thursday where Health Minister Annette King will release a six-month summary of progress made in implementing recommendations following the ministerial inquiry.

The two women are expecting more trumpeting of the new national screening programme, which has come too late for them.

Although they are glad that improvements are being made, neither has regained faith in the health system they had once trusted.

"This was Cartwright No 2. Let's hope there is no third Cartwright," Mrs Ure said.

She was referring to the inquiry more than 12 years ago, headed by Judge Silvia Cartwright, now the Governor-General, into the non-treatment of some women with pre-cancerous conditions.

The Cartwright recommendations were never fully implemented.

Meanwhile, Bruce Corkill, counsel for affected women, hopes a proposal for compensation will be presented to those women before Christmas.

Following meetings between Health Ministry representatives and lawyers for the women, Mrs King had agreed to crown counsel and health officials' discussing compensation claims with them, he said.