Minister apologises after death of patient

Health Minister David Clark has apologised ‘‘unreservedly’’ after a person supposed to be invited to take part in a pilot screening programme died of bowel cancer.

Two others who should have got invitations developed the disease.

Clark has ordered an independent review of the National Bowel Screening Programme in light of the invitation bungle, which affected about 2500 people.

The free screening programme is being rolled out in stages around the country, with three district health boards currently under way.

It is due to be in place across all DHBs by mid-2021 but will not be fully rolled out until mid-2023.

During the pilot programme in Waitemata DHB, which ran from 2011 to the end of last year, Clark said issues with updating addresses meant some people did not receive their invitations to be screened.

Last year, the Ministry of Health wrote to about 2500 people who had not received screening invitations because of 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,’’ Clark said.

Bowel screening detects cancers at an earlier stage, when it can often be more successfully treated.

According to the Ministry’s clinical advice, it was not possible to say whether the outcomes for any of the three people would have been different if they had received their invitations, but their cancers might have been detected earlier if they had chosen to be screened, Clark said.

‘‘The Ministry of Health has taken full responsibility for this matter. As Minister of Health I also apologise unreservedly.’’

Since the issue was discovered, addresses had been manually updated in the National Bowel Screening Register by cross referencing them with the National Health Index. Work was ongoing looking at address records to ensure all errors were identified, Clark said.

‘‘I want to be assured that everything possible is done to avoid these sort of issues happening again.

‘‘The independent review will look at a broad range of factors, including information technology, DHB capacity, operational management and clinical matters.

‘‘We know that screening saves lives. It is important that the public have confidence that we are delivering a safe and effective programme and this review will help ensure just that,’’ he said.

The National Bowel Screening Programme roll-out will continue during the review, which is expected to be complete by June.

Bowel Cancer New Zealand (BCNZ) executive member Sarah Derrett said it was devastating a life was lost as a result of inadequate processes.

She said the programme should put multiple communication routes in place to alert eligible people, not just postal addresses.