NCSP Sector Update – July 2023

A webinar hosted by the Goodfellow Unit, and focused on the transition to HPV primary screening, was a huge success in early June. A total of 2200 registrations were received and the webinar received an approval rating of just under 100%.

We have provided answers to questions raised at the webinar, which were not answered on the night. These on the NSU health professionals’ web pages at Goodfellow Unit Webinars | National Screening Unit (nsu.govt.nz)(link is external)

A link to the webinar itself can be found at https://www.goodfellowunit.org/events-and-webinars/hpv-primary-screening...(link is external)

A big mihi to the Metro Auckland Cervical Screening Operations Group (MACSOP) for their work in arranging the webinar.

Dr Margaret Sage (NCSP Clinical lead, Pathology and NCPTS Cytopathologist) has provided information videos for HPV primary screening, written to train lab staff.

These are free to access and available on the National Cervical Pathology Training Service site. Click on HPV primary screening training in the top left-hand corner of the homepage. No login needed (see top left of the page): https://ncpts.co.nz/(link is external)

After each talk, there is a set of 10 Multiple Choice Question clinical scenarios to practise applying the guidelines. Anyone is free to answer the questions – you need to enter your name as instructed at the beginning if you are answering the questions. (This is just so we know you aren’t a laboratory staff person because the labs staff are getting a certificate and CPD points if they complete the training).

No one will be looking at the answers for anyone outside the laboratory sector workforce. You can use a dummy name if you want to, but we would really encourage people to work through the questions as it really makes you think about the guidelines.

Good progress is being made on the development of the initial Foundation Resources, to be made available on HealthEd.govt.nz from mid-August. You will need to place your order via HealthEd to receive the quantity of the specific resources your community’s needs in time for 12 September.

Foundation resources will include the following:

Updated resources

• Cervical Screening: What you need to know pamphlet (current HE1256) - generic English and te Reo Māori versions
• Cervical Screening: Understanding test results pamphlet (current HE4598) - generic English and te Reo Māori versions
• Colposcopy: What you need to know pamphlet (current HE1202) - generic English and te Reo Māori versions

New resources

• Cervical Screening: Your test, your choice (pamphlet) – generic English and te Reo Māori versions, plus a version in English tailored to Pacific audiences
• The Cervical Screening Self-test: What you need to know (leaflet) - generic English and te Reo Māori versions, plus a version in English tailored to Pacific audiences
• Cervical Screening: How to do the HPV self-test (A4 poster) - generic English and te Reo Māori versions
• Cervical Screening: How to do the HPV self-test (A3 poster) - generic English and te Reo Māori versions
• Ask about the new cervical screening test (A4 poster) - generic English and te Reo Māori versions, plus a version in English tailored to Pacific audiences

Paid advertising to support the transition by raising awareness of the changes will start from the go-live date.  The campaign will have a soft launch, beginning with targeted online activities, and will build over time to include radio, print and outdoor media.  A partner pack of messages and social content will be made available via a Partner toolkit on the nsu.govt.nz website by late August.

Some awesome mahi is being done around the motu to promote cervical screening. In the Te Tai Tokerau / Northern Region, a cervical screening clinic was held in conjunction with NorthTec in June to support them.

The team there is also running regular Te Whatu Ora Outreach clinics on a Tuesday in Whangarei and some in South Whangarei on Thursdays (Mangawhai, Kaiwaka area) for priority wāhine.

They are also working with Te Ha Oranga community provider (Wellsford) and Broadway Medical Centre (mid and far North clinics) to run some cervical screening clinics for their overdue wahine.

There was a buzz of gratitude around the room as Tūranganui-a-kiwa held its first Cervical Sample Taker Training Course at the Tangata Rite Building on Peel Street in Gisborne.

Bringing this training to the community was the result of collaboration between Pinnacle Midlands Health Network, Well Women and Family Trust (Auckland) and Te Whatu Ora – Tairāwhiti. 

Organisers from the Well Women and Family Trust were thrilled when they were sought out to provide training in Gisborne.

Connection was a main focus at the workshop, with facilitators hoping that local doctors and nurses from different practices would be able to get to know each other.

“Allowing the participants to network, the hope is to make sure everyone is aware of the support they have within their community,” says Tracy Fergus, Clinical Services Manager at Pinnacle Midlands Health Network.

Previously, training was only offered outside the region, creating barriers for many of local health providers as it would require a night away from work and their families. Many of the workshop participants spoke about how the local training made it more accessible for them to attend as they were single mothers.

Dr Anja Neugebauer, from The Doctors Te Whare Hapara, spoke about how grateful she was that the training could be offered locally as she would not have been able to leave her children to do a two-day training course in Auckland.

In total, 13 health professionals were trained. Evelyn Cross, regional coordinator for the National Cervical Screening Programme, hopes to make this an annual training opportunity -- “Increasing the numbers of sample takers in the region aligns with the National Cervical Screening Programme vision of reaching more participants in their own communities and expanding the workforce with more Māori and Pacific staff at all levels of the screening process” she says. 

Also remembering a phenomenal wahine, Talei Roimata Morrison (4 November 1975 – 16 June 2018) who passed from cervical cancer in June 2018, 10 months after diagnosis in August 2017.

We remember her and her call for wāhine to have their cervical screens so no-one else suffers as she did and no whānau loses another loved one.