Collaborative approach lifts local cervical screening rates

26 September 2011

Almost 500 local women have been for their cervical smear test in the past 10 weeks, in a unique, collaborative approach designed to lift screening rates across the district.

Working alongside Ngati Porou Hauora, the National Cervical Screening Programme (Tairawhiti) secured one-off funding from the National Screening Unit to increase the screening rates of priority women within the Tairawhiti district.

East Coast Clinical Nurse Team Leader, Cheryl Johnson, and Acting Whanau Ora Manager, Nancy Lofts, realized some of their wahine (women) would probably feel more comfortable having their smear completed by 'a neutral' smear taker.

 To this end they designed a roster that allowed their regular staff to move to other clinics and also included weekend and evening smear clinics.

”This was a huge undertaking,” said Ms Johnson, “considering we still had to fulfil our normal nursing obligations at our own Health Centres. But it was just so important to encourage women to feel comfortable enough to have the test and to allow them to come into the clinics at times that suited them.”

 Every woman who went to the clinic got a chance to win a prize too. The winner of this prize, Iwi Harrison, said she attended the clinic because, “I got a phone call saying my smear test was overdue. When I was phoned about my prize I thought there had been a mishap with my smear as I had completely forgotten about the competition. I was really stoked with my prize and thought it was lovely”.

 After much hard work, the local teams are proud of their efforts – successful screening of 486 women in a period of 10 weeks. Feedback from many of these women was that having a positive screening experience is the key to empowering them to return for regular smear tests.

Because of this great success Ngati Porou Hauora has decided to continue offering their women incentives to be screened over the months of September through to the end of December.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

More than 1000 women were identified as either being overdue or as never having had a smear test. In order to identify this group, the Ngati Porou Hauora team completed an audit of all eligible women enrolled with their organisation. The NCSP team then matched this data against screening information held on the National Cervical Screening register.

Ninety-five percent of the women identified were Maori. As at December 2010, the national coverage rates for Maori women was 55.4%, for Asian women 51.7% and for Pacific Island women 60.9% and European women is 86.5%. Nationally the target for all ethnic groups is 75%, therefore it was clearly evident where the efforts of the NCSP (Tairawhiti) needed to be focussed.

The NCSP (Tairawhiti) celebrate “September Cervical Screening month” with the knowledge that working with and alongside GP’s is the key to reducing the incidence of cervical cancer and - more importantly - reducing health inequalities.

 
ENDS

For further information please contact

Kathy McVey, Communications Manager, Tairawhiti District Health

06 867-0500 ext 8115 or  021 233 7094

Kathy.McVey@tdh.org.nz