Cancer-vetting wait ‘costing lives’

People are dying while officials decide whether to give Ma¯ori and Pacific New Zealanders free bowel cancer screening from the age of 50, the Ma¯ori Party says.

The Ministry of Health is still considering whether to give those groups screening a decade earlier than others, in recognition of the fact the disease strikes them at a younger age.

Documents show at least one major district health board believes dropping the age has already been decided, and the issue is about timing.

Ma¯ori Party president Che Wilson told the Herald the indecision will cost lives, and let one of NZ’s biggest health initiatives keep widening inequities. “People are dying.

“It just shows what is happening throughout this Government — that the Ma¯ori MPs don’t have a say.”

Bowel Cancer NZ also called for swift action. Spokeswoman Mary Bradley said the delay in dropping the screening age “is costing lives”.

“We want to see this happen immediately, as the evidence is there that this will make a huge difference in outcomes for so many Ma¯ori bowel cancer patients.”

Health workers, researchers and organisations — including the Cancer Society and the Ma¯ori Medical Practitioners Association — also want the screening age dropped, as does the National Party.

Recent board minutes from Counties Manukau DHB indicate a decision to drop the screening age has been made. One reason previously given by the ministry for not doing so was that Ma¯ori and Pacific had lower rates of bowel cancer, but data now shows this isn’t the case.

“Ma¯ori and Pacific bowel cancer results are tracking very close to rates of Europeans,” the November meeting’s minutes state. “Ministry have therefore agreed to lower the age to 50 years for Ma¯ori and Pacific but have not [said] . . . when this can start.”

But a ministry spokeswoman said nothing was decided, and there was no change in position since the Herald reported on the issue in November.

That story revealed broadcaster and former Silver Fern Jenny-May Clarkson’s support for the screening age to be lowered, after her brother, 56, died from the disease.

In it, Dr Jane O’Hallahan, clinical director of the ministry’s national screening unit, said officials were “exploring implementation options” to drop the age for Ma¯ori and Pasifika but no decision had been made.

The focus was on the national rollout while dropping the age was being looked at, she said. That is at the halfway point, with 10 of 20 DHBs offering screening, and expected to be complete by June 2021.

Bowel cancer (also called colon, rectal or colorectal) kills more than 1200 New Zealanders every year — more than breast and prostate cancer combined. Early detection is critical to chances of survival, but the disease can be symptomless and others can be reluctant to act when they appear.

For this reason, health authorities piloted a free screening programme in Waitemata¯ DHB from 2012 involving people aged 50 to 74.

Lives were saved and the previous National-led Government pledged almost $200 million to extend it nationally. But screening is less likely to help Ma¯ori and Pacific Kiwis because the starting age was moved up to 60 when the pilot went national.

More than a quarter of bowel cancers strike Pacific Kiwis between 50 and 59, the latest annual data shows, with one-in-five Ma¯ori bowel cancers taking hold in that time.