Cancer Control Monitoring Report Welcomed

Media Release
Embargoed to 11am 23 August 2007

Cancer Control Monitoring Report Welcomed

The Cancer Control Council released today its first evaluation and monitoring report, Mapping Progress: The First Two Years of the Cancer Control Strategy Action Plan 2005-2010.

The New Zealand Cancer Control Trust describes it as an important milestone in gathering information about cancer control activities in New Zealand.

Trust chairman, Dr Brian Cox, commends the Council on what he says is an important first step in assessing progress in implementing the action plan.

“Continued implementation of the action plan is essential if we are to keep up with international progress being made in cancer prevention, screening, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care,” Dr Cox says.

According to the report, 15 percent of the identified actions have been achieved, 56 percent are in progress and 22 percent have been delayed.

“This, and other information in the report, highlights areas where the council needs to provide further leadership and engagement,” he says.

The Trust supports the need for regular monitoring of the progress of the implementation of the action plan and the council’s role in leading the strategy’s implementation.

Dr Cox says the council has a particularly important role in actively facilitating actions not yet addressed.

“The council must have the confidence of the whole sector, including government agencies, non-government organisations, professional societies and the community, to continue to motivate and mobilise action.

“Council independence is essential to this confidence so that it is increasingly seen as the coordinating organisation for all sectors involved in cancer control.”

He says mobilising action also requires further resources for the council to enable it to support and co-fund activities in the action plan undertaken by DHBs and NGOs and the Trust hopes to see the start of the delayed actions soon.

The New Zealand Cancer Control Strategy, launched by the Minister of Health in 2003, was developed jointly by the Ministry and the New Zealand Cancer Control Trust, with funding from both agencies.

This collaboration represented a unique commitment of both government and non-government agencies to work together to minimise the incidence and impact of cancer in New Zealand.

The Trust was set up with funding from the Cancer Society of New Zealand and the Child Cancer Foundation to represent the non-Government sector in facilitating the development and implementation of a cancer control strategy and identifying the need for an independent Cancer Control Council to have oversight of cancer control in New Zealand.

ENDS

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