Dr Lynda Scott National Health Spokesperson 4 July 2003

Complacent King should resign

Health Minister Annette King's response to the half-hearted cervical screening programme is so appalling she should resign, says National Health Spokesperson Dr Lynda Scott.

"Annette King is telling New Zealand women she doesn't want a credible fool proof cervical screening programme. She agrees with the Ministry of Health who have obviously dropped the programme as any sort of priority. "The complacency of the Minister and the Ministry is scandalous.

"This Minister is putting lives at risk by not taking the implementation of this screening programme seriously. New Zealand women have been under a false sense of security for the past three years that this programme is operating and protecting them.

"The Minister is defending the indefensible. The Ministry of Health has handled this totally incompetently and the Minister cannot defend this. True to form the Ministry has come out and attacked the writer of the report, Dr McGoogan, rather than facing the fact that it has not done its job.

"Millions of dollars have been spent on this programme and New Zealand women still have no assurances that it is safe. If the Minister continues to endorse the Ministry's incompetence she should resign.

"Annette King is cheating New Zealand women of a fair go, and forgetting her pledges of "openness and transparency" in defending these failures," Dr Scott said.

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