Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women ignored by National Cervical Screening Program
23/11/11
Opposition spokesperson on Indigenous Health, Dr Andrew Laming, has described the latest cervical cancer mortally figures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women as yet another national health disgrace.
“Figures published by the AIHW on 31 October show’s the incidence of cervical cancer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in 2008-2009 was more than twice that of non-Indigenous women, and the mortality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women was five times the non-Indigenous rate. This was true for women aged 20-69 years, and for women of all ages.
“Another finding was that mortality was higher in remote and very remote areas and also higher in the lowest socioeconomic status group – clearly governments need to be targeting these groups,” Dr Laming said.
“An extremely worrying aspect of the incidence and mortality rates for Indigenous women is that they have not shown any improvement over the past 10 years.
“This is in stark contrast to the figures for non-Indigenous women which show both incidence and mortality have halved since the introduction of the National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP).
“Why? Because unlike Indigenous women they get to fully participate in the NCSP.
Dr Laming said he was at a loss to understand why, after so many years and reports, there was still no national mechanism for the collection of A&TSI status on pathology forms which means that state and territory cervical cytology registers are unable to collect A&TSI status.
“This lack of A&TSI status data means that participation, rescreening, cytology and histology trends specific to A&TSI women cannot be monitored. In addition, we have no idea about the effectiveness of initiatives to increase participation,” Dr Laming said.
Dr Laming urged all governments, State/Territory and Commonwealth, to work together and take the necessary action to fix this data collection anomaly which translates into a devastating effect on Indigenous women’s health.
“Such inequitable access to mainstream health policies has no place in Australia in the 21st century,” Dr Laming said today.