Friday, 11 December 2020, 5:49 am
The National Bowel Screening Programme (NSBP), which
began in 2017 following a pilot that started at Waitemata
District Health Board five years earlier, is a welcome
initiative long in its gestation and implementation. The
screening programme is for people without symptoms in the
60-74 age range.
Early detection wherever possible
goes a long way to protecting identifiable vulnerable
population groups making for many death avoidable providing,
of course, diagnosis is followed by prompt
treatment.
The Labour led government elected in 2017
increased the national implementation tempo with 14 DHBs now
in the programme (the most recent being the largest,
Auckland). The Ministry of Health expects that the remaining