HPV testing has the potential to save many lives by improving the sensitivity of the screening program and by reducing barriers to cervical screening. . Women enrolled in selected general practices in Whanganui (and in Wellington and Christchurch ) will be offered participation in a pilot that will inform the national implementation of HPV testing for cervical cancer prevention.

HPV testing will be introduced into the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP) in mid-2023.

HPV testing has the potential to save many lives by improving the sensitivity of the screening program and by reducing barriers to cervical screening. Women will have a new option of self-testing or continuing with the current clinician testing.

Aspects of HPV screening will be a major change for the NCSP. For this reason it is important to determine real world information on the feasibility and impact of HPV screening including the new self-testing option.

Women enrolled in selected general practices in Whanganui, Wellington and Christchurch will be offered participation in the pilot.

Participation in this pilot will enable early access to the benefits of HPV screening and the outcomes of the pilot will enable the national implementation of HPV testing in 2023 to be introduced in an optimal manner.

A local steering group has been formed to introduce the pilot.

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• We wish to offer participation in the pilot to women in five general practices in the Whanganui region.
• The practices have been selected to ensure a balanced representation of women participating throughout the three regions involved.
• We aim to enrol 1000 women in the pilot over six-months from July 2022
• Women will be offered participation as their screening falls due
• Invitation to participate will be coordinated by a locality screening centre
• Women may choose a self test or a clinician test
• Because this is a pilot study, participating women will be requested to sign an informed consent.
• Women may choose not to participate
• Test results will be managed by the clinical team at the women’s general practice
• Approximately 1 in 10 women will have a positive high risk HPV test result and will require further examination (cytology testing) by their general practice.
• Some of these women may need to be referred to the hospital clinic for a close examination of the cervix (colposcopy)

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This project was feature in the New Zealand Medical Journal  - Te Ara Tika o Te Hauora Hapori, Feb 2024. You can view this below.