Amid growing concern about patients' access to care, the Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC) is launching a campaign to ensure that patients who do not have a physician still have access to Pap test screening.

    The Oct. 27-31 campaign by the FMWC, a CMA associate organization, will see doctors across the country who volunteer to participate open their practices to patients who do not have a family doctor or gynecologist so that they can receive the test.

    FMWC President Kathleen Gartke says the reason is simple: "The Canadian Cancer Society predicts that there will be 1,300 new cases of cervical cancer diagnosed in Canada this year, and the tragedy is that 90% of these cases could be prevented through regular screening."

    According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, 15% of women have never had a Pap test and 30% have not been screened for more than three years.

Physicians are being asked to register at the FMWC website so that their clinic or office can be included in the national list of participants. Registrants will be emailed a poster that can be used to publicize the campaign in community centres and public libraries. By Oct. 16 more than a dozen clinics or individual physicians in four provinces had signed on, with many accepting "drop-in" patients.

    Gartke says vaccines that prevent infection with the human papilloma virus will eliminate many cases of cervical cancer in the future, "but there is no substitute for a Pap test for early diagnosis."