The lessons to be learned from Dr Green affair

The lessons to be learned from Dr Green’s ‘unfortunate experiment’

Women’s Health Action Trust has today released a report of a seminar held late last year on the important lessons to be learnt from the Cartwright Inquiry in today’s health care system .

“The report is particularly timely given the release of new research this week showing the terrible impact on women who were included in Dr Herb Green’s ‘unfortunate experiment’ at National Women’s Hospital” says Christy Parker of Women’s Health Action.

Revelations about Dr Green’s unethical study, which involved following women with major cervical abnormalities without definitively treating them, and without their knoweldge or consent, led to public outrage and ultimatley to a Ministerial Committee of Inquiry.

The Inquiry into the Allegations Concerning the Treatment of Cervical Cancer at National Women’s Hopsital in 1987 and 1988, known as the Cartwright Inquiry after the presiding judge, Judge Dame Silvia Cartwright, led to scrutiny of a range of issues related to the practice of medicine in New Zealand including research practices, teaching methods, patients’ rights and medical dominance.

“The Inquiry, and the subsequent report had important implications for the future of health care in New Zealand that remain relevant today” says Parker, “The report was a blueprint for patient’s rights in New Zealand and also recommended the establishment of a Health and Disability Commissioner, a system of ethical review of research, and the establishment of a National Cervical Screening Programme”. It was also the first time that there was a serious focus on patients and consumers in the health care system and a consideration of the need for a patient-centred health care.

Women’s Health Action is delighted to release the ‘Cartwright comes of age?’ Seminar Report: maintaining momentum towards a New Zealand health care system with the principles of the Cartwright Report at its foundation. The report provides a summary of the seminar presentations and discussions, with a focus on the afternoon workshops which resulted in a set of recommendations. “We offer these recommendations with the hope that they may help guide action and maintain momentum towards a New Zealand health care system with the principles of the Cartwright Report at its foundation, and to ensure the specific recommendations of the Cartwright Report are implemented in the spirit in which they were intended” says Parker. The report can be accessed from our website www.womens-health.org.nz.

ENDS

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