Background and external link to the New Zealand Medical Journal article "Monitoring the performance of New Zealand's National Cervical Screening Programme through data linkage" by Dr Hazel Lewis.
This is the first in an on-going series of updates of the Guidelines for Cervical Screening in New Zealand, released by the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP) in August 2008.
The Guidelines for Cervical Screening in New Zealand, 2008 updates and replaces the Guidelines for the Management of Women with Abnormal Smears, published in 1999.
The Guidance on HPV Testing Update 1: April 2010 can be found on pg 55 of the guidelines document.
A key objective of the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP) is to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer by detecting precancerous high grade squamous intra-epithelial lesions (HSIL). Monitoring trends in HSIL detection is critical to understanding the epidemiology of cervical cancer in New Zealand and to evaluating the performance of the NCSP.
This report summarises the findings of the DHBs’review of colposcopy services. In carrying out its analysis the NSU has also drawn upon the findings of recent NCSP provider compliance audits of nine DHB colposcopy services and has reviewed DHB compliance with contractual reporting requirements.