KEY POINTS:
The Government announced last night that it would fast-track the creation of a national bowel cancer screening programme.
But the National Party, although supporting the idea of a screening programme, blasted the announcement as a cynical election ploy.
"There was nothing in the Budget about it; nothing in the Ministry of Health's plan of work. It's pure electioneering," said National's health spokesman, Tony Ryall.
Health Minister David Cunliffe said he was committed to acting as fast as possible to set up the programme.
Last July, the Herald reported that surgeons had castigated the Government over its slow pace in setting up a programme.
The ministry's chief adviser on cancer control, Dr John Childs, said at the time that it was designing a feasibility study, which could be running in 12 to 18 months.
One of the key issues has always been the need for extra staff to perform the higher number of "colonoscopy" bowel investigations that will result from introducing screening based on laboratory tests of faecal samples from well people. Public hospitals already have difficulty performing colonoscopies soon enough after a patient with symptoms suggestive of cancer is referred for one.
New Zealand has one of the world's highest rates of bowel or "colo-rectal" cancer. Each year, around 2700 New Zealanders are diagnosed with the disease and it kills about 1200.
