Source: Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa
Making cervical screening free is a significant win in the battle to eliminate cervical cancer, Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa says.
“I’ve worked for 25 years in primary health care and I know, and the statistics confirm, that when there’s a cost, people will put off or opt out of testing,” chief executive Jackie Edmond says.
“Making cervical screening free, putting it on a par with bowel or breast screening, is a huge step forward in encouraging more people to test. And, as providers, this gives us another tool to encourage people to take a test that could save their life.”
We are an integral part of the screening community and well positioned to support expansion of the service. Family Planning, as we were then known, started offering cervical smears – at that time a radical practice – in 1957. The introduction of universally free cervical screening will come in 2027, meaning it will happen in our 70th year of being a screening provider.
“The cervical cancer elimination plan provides clear actions for the elimination of cervical cancer, and we have the capability, capacity and positioning in the sector to deliver across all of the three targets of vaccines, screening and treatment,” Ms Edmond says. “For example, we know that through our clinical, health promotion and work online, we reach many people who have never had a cervical screen or are overdue for a cervical screen – many of whom are not seeing any other primary care provider. We are meeting with young people in our clinics and in communities across the country who are precisely those who need the information and services.”
“In the year to 1 September, across our clinics we completed 10,592 cervical screens and HPV tests. We are the country’s largest single cervical screening organisation. There are many other ways we are able to support free screening too. For example, we offer an at-home HPV test free for eligible people. Since launch in March this year and with no promotion, we’ve mailed out more than 590 HPV tests. If cost were removed as a barrier we could expand and promote this service far more broadly, bringing the opportunity to test close to home for so many people.”