Abstract:
Under Part 4A of the Health Act, ‘National Cervical Screening Programme’ (NCSP), practitioners have a statutory duty to provide women with detailed information about the NCSP and also to make available to evaluators of the NCSP the personal health information of their patients ‘free of charge’. Non- compliance with an evaluator’s request for information is punishable by a ‘fine not exceeding $10,000’, while the fine for failing to provide women with information about the NCSP is a fine of ‘$500’. This duty to provide information has significant compliance cost implications for practitioners working in the primary care sector (where most screening smears are taken) and provides little in the way of benefit to women. Part 4A of the Health Act thus adds to the burdens of the primary care practitioner (by increasing the cost of providing cervical screening, by over-riding doctor–patient confidentiality, by threatening practitioners with hefty fines, and by turning evaluations of the NCSP into a medico-legal risk for practitioners) and further erodes the reputation of primary care as an at-tractive career option for doctors, at a time when the primary care sector is already struggling to attract and retain practitioners.
