A meeting scheduled for April 24, set at the advisory group's November meeting last year, was cancelled as "key people couldn't attend", the Ministry of Health said earlier this month.
Further questions about why this happened when the meeting date had been set last year, why another date had not been arranged before the next scheduled meeting in July given some controversial issues had been made public since the November meeting, and whether this allowed the group to do its job in a timely way, drew only the comment "it was unfortunate, but couldn't be avoided".
The group has not met since the hard-hitting review of the national programme, BreastScreen Aotearoa (BSA), by Australian screening authority Jennifer Muller was made public last December.
Mrs Muller referred to members of the advisory group having a range of frustrations and general dissatisfaction with the relationship between it and the National Screening Unit.
"There were strong concerns for the safety and quality of the BSA programme and the expressed view of feeling unsafe."
Members felt their expertise and knowledge was not used or valued by the unit. Concern had also been expressed about the frequency and scheduling of meetings.
Mrs Muller said the group meetings had been "somewhat curtailed" in recent years due to the Minister of Health's directives. She said this did not recognise the importance of the various advisory groups as part of the quality management structure of the BSA programme.
In January, Health Minister Tony Ryall said the Government's view was that such groups should meet when necessary and that there was no proven link between the quality of a service and the number of times a committee met.
Following the release of Mrs Muller's report, the Otago Daily Times revealed systems failures in the national breast-screening service BreastScreen Aotearoa, discovered in 2009, resulted in delayed routine two-yearly screening mammograms for 241 women, five of whom were found to have cancer.
It also found the only report written on this incident, which was classified as a sentinel event, was never presented to the independent advisory group because it focused on technical issues.
That report, completed in 2010, did not set out the number of women affected, or that when the error was discovered, between 6000 and 7000 records had to be checked.
The ministry also confirmed the advisory group had not been brought fully up to date on the numbers affected after initially being advised of the problem back in July 2009.
Ministry of Health chief medical officer Dr Don Mackie has given an assurance if the same event occurred today it would be reported publicly, in line with a trend towards increasing transparency on such matters at district health board level in the past few years.
Another issue the advisory group may have wished to discuss in April was the recent investigation into concerns there had been delays in diagnosing cancer in 28 women between 2007 and 2010 in Otago and Southland because BreastScreen Health Care's "false negative rate" was too high.
The ministry investigation, which included comments from advisory group member Dr Richard Taylor, a professor of public health and community medicine at the University of New South Wales, found last month there had been no screening failure and BreastScreen HealthCare had a reasonable rate of false negatives.
Mrs Muller's review had suggested that with a well-planned agenda and meeting papers the group should be able to provide sufficient support to the NSU through two one-day, face-to-face meetings a year.
• The ministry has advised that the Otago women involved in the most recent breast cancer controversy which involved the switching of biopsy samples were not part of the screening programme, but women with symptoms referred for diagnostic investigation. One woman had a healthy breast removed, while the other woman was initially wrongly given the all-clear.
Breast Screening Advisory Group
Its role
• To discuss and provide independent advice on the policy and strategic direction of the programme (members are expected to consult widely within their constituent groups).
• Discuss research and development opportunities for the programme.
• Provide advice on other areas as agreed by the group and BreastScreen Aotearoa.
• Provide advice on multidisciplinary operational issues.
Group members
Barbara Holland (consumer representative), Vasuki Haran (data manager), Margreet Simpson (treatment data collector), Marie-Therese Borland (medical radiation technologist), Jeremy Nicoll (medical physicist), David Moss (surgeon), Mary Obele (GP representative), Pru Wood (breast care nurse), Joan Miles (lead provider manager), Mary Christie (pathologist), Glyn Thomas (radiologist), Richard Taylor (monitoring and evaluation).
Sentinel event
Defined at the National Screening Unit as "an incident that signals something serious has occurred and warrants in-depth investigation. There is opportunity for either actual or potential serious harm to occur".
