September 2, 2024
Last week, Board Chair Stefan Corbett, Board Member Linda Faulkner and BCNZ Medical Advisor Professor Frank Frizelle, met with the Hon Shane Reti, Minister of Health.
In an open and constructive conversation, the Minister reaffirmed that his Government “will lower the bowel cancer screening age” for the general population, as was promised during the election. The Minister is awaiting a briefing from his department and hopes to have further information on the way forward before Christmas.
We pressed the Minister on the need to act quickly, and to ensure equity for Māori and Pasifika is built into whatever changes are made to the national screening programme, as these populations continue to experience significantly worse outcomes than non-Māori.
We stressed the fact that bowel cancer continues to be a leading cause of death in Aotearoa and a significant burden on our communities and health system. We thanked the Minister for the recent decisions to boost funding to Pharmac – which has led to the availability of the first new subsidised front-line drugs for bowel cancer in 22 years.
We pressed the Government to continue to be ambitious in relation to Pharmac funding, as new drug treatments are essential to reducing the number of people dying from this disease and to improve the quality of life for patients and their whānau.
“Overall, our sense was that there is a clear commitment from the Minister to achieve better outcomes to address the very high rates of bowel cancer in New Zealand. The critical thing now is to understand the detail of impending changes and to see those implemented before more lives are lost.” Stefan Corbett, Bowel Cancer NZ Board Chair.
Pictured left to right: Board Member Linda Faulkner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti, Board Chair Stefan Corbett and Bowel Cancer NZ Medical Advisor Professor Frank Frizelle.
Read the full briefing paper presented to the Health Minister, Dr Reti, below.