Cancer death after address shift

Minister orders review of bowel screening programme after issues with chasing up people who move house

Apatient who moved house missed out on receiving an invitation to get bowel cancer screening — and later died of bowel cancer. Minister of Health Dr David Clark has ordered an independent review of the National Bowel Screening Programme due to issues with people not receiving their invites after changing address.

Last year, the Ministry of Health wrote to about 2500 people who had not received screening invitations due to the issue.

“Three people may have been impacted by the delay and have gone on to develop bowel cancer. One of those people has sadly died,” according to a statement from Clark’s office.

Bowel cancer is the second most lethal cancer in New Zealand, killing more than 1200 people each year. Screening detects cancers early on, increasing the chance that treatment will work.

The free screening programme is being rolled out in stages around the country, with three DHBs currently on board. It is due to be in place nationwide by mid-2021.

But during the pilot programme, which ran from 2011 to the end of 2017, it was discovered that address changes were not properly being updated, and some people weren’t getting their invitations in the mail.

“I want to be assured that everything possible is done to avoid these sort of issues happening again,” Clark said.

Clinical advice from the Ministry of Health said it was not possible to determine if any of the three people with cancer would have had different outcomes if they had received their invitations.

However their cancers might have been detected earlier if they had chosen to be screened.

Since the issue was discovered addresses have been manually updated the National Bowel Screening Register by crossreferencing with the National Health Index. Work is ongoing looking at address records to ensure all errors are being identified, the statement said.

“The Ministry of Health has taken in full responsibility for this matter. As Minister of Health I also apologise unreservedly,” Clark said.

He said the independent review would look at a broad range of factors, including information technology, DHB capacity, operational management and clinical matters.

The rollout of the National Bowel Screening Programme will continue during the review, which should be completed by June.

Rebekah Heal, chief executive of Bowel Cancer NZ, said the address bungle was “deeply concerning”.

The organisation’s condolences were with those affected and their families, she said.

It was clear the review was an important step, although she hoped it would not slow the full rollout of the programme. She has previously criticised the slow pace of the rollout.