19 February 2003

Parliamentary Officer (Committee Support)
Room 9.04

19 February 2003

Media release – Health Committee

Health (Screening Programmes) Amendment Bill

The Health Committee is inviting public submissions on the Health (Screening Programmes) Amendment Bill. The closing date for submissions is 11 April 2003.

The Health (Screening Programmes) Amendment Bill will implement several key recommendations from the Ministerial Inquiry into the Under-Reporting of Cervical Smear Abnormalities in the Gisborne Region (April 2001), which sought changes to section 74A of the Health Act 1956.

The bill aims to:
- streamline and clarify how the National Cervical Screening Programme works and what its objectives are - enabling more direct communication between smear-takers, women, and the manager of the programme; and
- make it possible to review the safety and effectiveness of the screening programme - by providing evaluators with access to key information to carry out evaluations.

Copies of the bill can be purchased from Bennetts Government Bookshops, or viewed online at www.moh.govt.nz.

The committee requires 25 copies of each submission. Those wishing to include any information of a private or personal nature in a submission should first discuss this with the clerk of the committee, as submissions are usually released to the public by the committee. Those wishing to appear before the committee to speak to their submissions should state this clearly and provide a daytime telephone contact number. For further guidance on making a submission, our publication Making a Submission to a Parliamentary Select Committee can be found on our web site at www.clerk.parliament.govt.nz.

Submissions should be addressed as follows:

Catherine Parkin
Health Committee Secretariat
Parliament House
WELLINGTON

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