Recently retired obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Gary Fentiman said the NCSP register was important because it reminded people to get regular screening.
"It's your safeguard so that if you forget, you get a reminder and it keeps the pressure on your practitioners."
The comments were made at a public discussion held at Southland Hospital's Learning and Research Centre in Invercargill late last week, Screens and Vaccines: Making Cervical Cancer a Thing of the Past.
Southland residents were invited to have an "open and honest" conversation with the clinicians working at the forefront of cervical cancer screening and treatment.
The event was the fifth of a series of public discussions hosted by the University of Otago and Southern District Health Board.
Dr Fentiman said New Zealand was "falling behind" with prevention and urged attendees to contact their local MP and the Minister of Health directly to ask for the revision.
"Unfortunately, because the energy has gone out of it from the Government perspective, we've started to see a drop off in people getting their screening."
He said the misconception that people did not need to get regular screens if they had already had the vaccine was also affecting screening numbers.
Having a screening system where primary HPV testing was done before cytology testing would also lower rates further, he said.
"By delaying the implementation of primary HPV screening which was supposed to have been introduced in 2018, there will be 20 women in New Zealand in a year who don't have their cancers prevented.
"The Government have chosen to ignore that because they think our programme is good enough. It no longer is."
The introduction of the "world-class" screening programme in 1990 was the reason New Zealand had reduced its rates by about 50%, he said.
"Cancer of the cervix in the pre-cancerous phases, there really aren't any symptoms and that's why it's so important to have a screening programme.
"You need to get your kids vaccinated and the earlier you vaccinate, the more effective that vaccination is going to be."
