![People are dying while the government drags its feet on funding a new cervical cancer screening programme, according to a leading women's health researcher Bevereley Lawton.
Lawton has prompted the government to fund a self-swabbing cervical cancer programme that allows people the privacy of taking a simple test at home.
Lawton, who conducted a study of the proposed HPV self-screening, said she can’t understand the delay, the Govt is not serving the community well on cervical cancer screening.
"It's failing a section of N.Z. One, it's not reaching everyone it should reach, and that's its responsibility as a programme. And secondly, it's using a poor test, what they're doing now is cytology - that is now a second-class test.
"We were not talking a lot of money here.
"[The HPV test] will save money in the long run because this test is every 5 years. It's a viral test, it's very effective at finding abnormalities on the cervix.
"I hear people every day talk about $3 billion going to be spent on this and that, we need a small amount of $ to do a programme that the ministry already says is best practice.
Lawton said the current screening programme did not reach all communities.
The self test swabs are the same as what is used for the Covid-19 swab.
"You go into the bathroom, and in your own privacy you do it… it's a little cotton bud, it goes into the vagina, and you swirl around, not very far at all.
"We asked people in the study about what they thought, they really liked it, they felt it empowered them, it was easy to do, they felt more in control.
Dr Lawton said she had written to the prime minister but had no reply.
"She needs to push the button. This is unacceptable. people are dying unnecessarily. The programme is cost effective, so let's just get on with it."
Today Tash @talk_peach meets with Beverley to chat more about the test. Will cervical smears take a back seat, do we still need to use both tests, how effective is it, what HPV strains is it testing for, And more.
We will report back with what we learn.](https://www.talkpeach.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
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