Report of the Ministerial Inquiry into the Under-reporting of Cervical Smear Abnormalities in the Gisborne Region

3. Background

3.1 The Minister of Health appointed the Committee of Inquiry in response to a growing public concern that cervical smear tests read at Gisborne Laboratories may have been misread with the result that cervical abnormalities were under-reported. These tests were carried out as part of the National Cervical Screening Programme.

3.2 The National Cervical Screening Programme was set up in response to a recommendation in the Report of the Cervical Cancer Inquiry 1988, which has come to be known as the Cartwright Inquiry. During the 1980s there was an increase in opportunistic cervical smear testing. Following on from this there was a call from some health professionals for an organised cervical screening programme. One of the medical controversies that came into focus before the Cartwright Inquiry was the value of organised cervical screening. In New Zealand the controversy was resolved by the recommendations in the Cartwright Report to institute organised cervical screening and the decision made by the Government of the day to implement the recommendations.