Budget 2021: Cancer Screening And Prevention A Winner, But More Work Needs To Be Done For Cancer Treatment

The Cancer Society of New Zealand welcomes extra funding for improving cancer screening programmes and prevention, but the outcomes for cancer treatment are less clear.

The Wellbeing Budget 2021 allocates extra funding to roll out the National Bowel Screening Programme and increase access for Māori and Pacific peoples. Earlier, the Government announced additional investment in cervical cancer and breast cancer screening.

“New Zealand has one of the highest bowel cancer rates in the world and the current eligible screening age is 60-74,” says Cancer Society Medical Director Dr Chris Jackson.

“There is a steep increase in bowel cancer beginning at age 50 and most comparable countries offer bowel screening from that age. Therefore, we encourage bowel screening from an earlier age for all New Zealanders.”

The Cancer Society supports the additional funding for Smokefree 2025 to scale up stop-smoking programmes and invest in health promotion. The Government is showing commitment to bring smoking rates down.

The Budget provides an extra $200 million boost for PHARMAC. However, it is far from clear if the extra boost will help people with cancer today.

“New Zealanders know that our access to cancer drugs is poorer and slower than comparable countries. The funding increase to PHARMAC doesn’t necessarily mean more cancer drugs for people affected by cancer,” says Dr Jackson.

“We need better tools to fight cancer like cancer drugs, but we also need the doctors and nurses to deliver these treatments. Adding new treatments without more staff just causes waiting times to go up and harms others in the process.”

“The new funding for DHBs needs to be directed to better and faster access to cancer diagnosis and treatment to improve our lagging cancer survival rates.”

The Cancer Society would have liked to see extra funding for the National Travel Assistance scheme, which provides access to support.

“People going through the difficulties of cancer treatment should not have to jump hurdles to get to the treatment. We want changes to the current scheme to improve equity and outcomes for people affected by cancer,” concludes Dr Chris Jackson.

Read more:

• Cancer Society’s statement on the pre-Budget announcements of additional investment in cervical cancer and breast cancer screening.

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