There is a way to reduce death rates from cancer that doesn't necessarily require more money. It may require a different allocation, and it could be put in place almost straight away.
The answer is a sharper focus on your resource use around cancer control.
Monitoring and measuring results must be a priority.
No one can know the highest priority area for resources without monitoring different types of delay in cancer treatment, or the impact of prevention, risk factor exposure and screening programmes.
You need to know nationally how long cancer patients have to wait between symptoms and treatment and whether effective palliative and end-of-life care programmes are in place.
You need good quality data, definitions and analyses that are consistent between regions. You need annual reports on performance indicators that span programmes for prevention, screening, supportive care and research, as well as diagnosis and treatment.
Unless you are measuring your work, you cannot know if you are succeeding.
I know that in the late 90s, a group of people here who work with cancer were so concerned about New Zealand's performance compared to similar countries that they got together and came up with a Cancer Control Strategy and action plan. That was a success. For example, an explicit target was set for quitting smoking among smokers admitted to hospital and people who visit GPs. A nationwide focus went on two of the most common killers - lung and bowel cancers.
National standards now exist for some of your most serious cancers to describe the level of service that patients should have access to. None of this would have happened without a strategy. An updated cancer control strategy should be your number one priority.
Dr Simon Sutcliffe is a Canadian clinician and scientist and president of the International Cancer Control Congress Association. He is the featured speaker at the Cancer Control Symposium and MPs' panel in Wellington today.
