October 2017 April 2015 | Seite 14

Te Puawai

economic development. It was possible to
apply this theorem to the rural issues found in
any of New Zealand’s more disadvantaged
areas such as described by Dr Lance
O’Sullivan, Dr Rawiri Jensen and Dr Ryes
Jones. Given the theme of the conference, the

subject of health inequality was, as expected,
a foremost topic, GPs and nurses maintaining
the belief that average New Zealanders
continue to ‘normalise’ inequalities, assume
they are fully understood and that there
remains a general indifference supporting
shallow explanations for health disparities in
NZ. In his presentation Dr Jones believes that
as health professionals, ‘we hold a privileged
position in society, we have access to
knowledge and resources, are trusted by the
public and have credibility in the media,
therefore now is the time to stop tolerating
inequities and the systems that create and
maintain them; advocacy is an integral part of
health professional’. As Ernest Sirolli says
“stop trying, just do it”

Anna Reed
Nurse Practitioner (Scope Older Adult)
Masterton Medical Centre

Time To Come Clean On Breast
Screening
Reprinted with the kind permission of the Auckland Women’s Health Council Newsletter

The February 2015 issue of the National
Screening Unit’s newsletter Screening Matters
features
an
article
announcing
that
“BreastScreen Aotearoa (BSA) is reviewing its
health education resources to ensure they are
meeting the needs of women and effectively
communicate the latest information on the
harms and benefits of population breast
screening.” (1)

© Te Puawai

This review is long overdue as New Zealand
women are still not being given evidencebased information on the lack of effectiveness
of breast cancer screening programmes.
However it is extremely unlikely that a health
agency whose role is to promote screening
can be entrusted with the task of providing
good information on the risks of breast cancer
screening and lack of evidence that it saves
lives.

College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ) Inc
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