Health Minister Andrew Little on why it took five years for the national bowel screening programme to arrive in the Bay of Plenty - the last DHB region to have it.
People will not suffer "the same fate" of dying from bowel cancer now the National Bowel Screening Programme has been rolled out in the Bay of Plenty, a widower says.
Eastern Bay of Plenty man Keld Hunia lost his wife Harina Warbrick in March 2020 after her three-year battle with bowel cancer. She was 59.
Health Minister Andrew Little visited Tauranga Hospital yesterday to mark the nationwide completion of the programme, which started rolling out in the Bay of Plenty last month.
The Bay of Plenty District Health Board is the last of New Zealand's DHBs to roll out the programme, which started in July 2017.
Little said about 44,000 Bay of Plenty residents aged 60 to 74 will now be eligible for free screening every two years through the programme, which aims to save lives through early diagnosis of bowel cancer.
Bay of Plenty District Health Board chief executive Pete Chandler. Photo / George Novak
Bay of Plenty District Health Board chief executive Pete Chandler said the national rollout was "completed in a sequential way around the country, DHB by DHB, and so someone is always last".
Chandler said the Bay of Plenty historically had "a high level of demand for colonoscopies" and needed to reduce its waiting lists before it could accommodate the higher volumes resulting from the bowel screening programme.
This involved medical teams working extra weekends, outsourcing procedures to other hospitals and, this year, building an additional procedure room at Whakatāne Hospital, Chandler said.
"We knew this work would take some time and that it would mean us being towards the end of the rollout plan. But it's also given us the opportunity to strengthen our rollout model based on learnings from other DHBs.
"We're now well set up for the programme to be a great success."
Health Minister Andrew Little pictured with Bay of Plenty-based Labour list MP Angie Warren-Clark. Photo / Mead Norton
In an interview with the Bay of Plenty Times, Little was asked why it took five years for the programme to roll out in the Bay.
He said: "We know that under the old model that when you've got 20 DHBs and you want to do a national programme, you've got to negotiate 20 different times and 20 different implementation plans and that's why it has taken five years.
"It's certainly my expectation that under the new model, once Health New Zealand takes effect in three weeks' time, is that if we want to do a national programme again like this, we won't take five years to do it. We can roll it out much more quickly."
Asked what he would say to people in the Bay who had lost loved ones to bowel cancer in the past five years, Little said this would save lives "from now on".
"Now that [the rollout] is complete, we'll save a lot more lives and I think everybody in the Bay of Plenty can be thankful that bowel screening is now here."
On the long wait time for colonoscopies, Little said the Bay of Plenty DHB now had the new technology it needed.
Under pressure staffing and hospital services were also contributors to wait times, he said.
"But I'm confident that every effort is being made through the DHBs, through the ministry, to manage down those waiting lists and it will get better over time."
Health Minister Andrew Little said the programme had already saved lives through an early diagnosis of bowel cancer. Photo / Mead Norton
"What they show for New Zealand is that for most of the population, the high-risk period starts at around 60 which is why we start the age of entry to the programme.
He said the risk was "much greater much earlier" for Māori and Pacific people, which is why it was announced in Budget 2022 funding would start next year to bring the screening age down to 50 for those groups.
"If we had a perfect system and not very many limits, we might be able to start it earlier. In the end, we've got to cut our cloth to suit. We've put additional money in but it's not enough to go as far as perhaps other people would like.
"This will still have a huge impact for a large number of people."
Health Minister Andrew Little said about 44,000 Bay of Plenty residents will be eligible for the programme. Photo / Mead Norton
In his speech at the event, Little said lowering the screening age to 50 for Māori and Pacific people was a consequence of the "advocacy of many" and "in pursuit of health equity".
He said one of the "critical objectives" for the health reform and the establishment of the Māori Health Authority was to bring mātauranga [Māori knowledge] to health services to ensure they were "truly equitable".
"We make a start when it comes to equity with the bowel screening programme."
National Bowel Screening Programme clinical director Susan Parry said it was a "momentous day for New Zealanders" as it completed the national rollout of the programme.
