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home > for health professionals > national cervical screening programme > legislation
Print this pageLegislation
A number of changes aimed at improving the quality, safety and effectiveness of the Programme took effect from 7 March 2005. The changes resulted from the passing of the Health (National Cervical Screening Programme) Amendment Act (2004). With the passage of the Act, the current section 74A of the Health Act was replaced with a new Part 4A.
A key purpose of the law change was to improve the operation and evaluation of the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP), to ensure its safety and effectiveness for women. The Act sets out objectives for the NCSP and provides for the appointment of experts (called Evaluators) to assess the performance and safety of the Programme by ensuring they have access to key information.
Key points from the legislation:
- responsibilities to inform women are clearly outlined
- all cervical results are sent by the laboratory to the NCSP
- results are entered onto the NCSP-Register and all women are enrolled unless a woman withdraws from the programme in writing
- a full screening record must be kept on the programme so there is no longer the ability to ‘opt off’ individual results. A woman is either enrolled or has withdrawn herself from the programme
- programme evaluators are able to access other personal health records relevant to that woman. This can be done for the purposes of evaluation for any woman who develops cervical cancer regardless of whether or not they are enrolled in the programme. A smear taker is able to oversee an evaluator, when accessing personal health records
- the Act allows for the prescribing of standards which may be enforced if required.
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