Tuesday, 6 July 2021, 12:06 pm
When the bowel screening programme rolled out in the
MidCentral DHB (MDHB) region, Stephen Paewai paid
attention.
Having his father pass away from bowel
cancer meant he was well aware of the ferociousness of the
disease, which is the second highest cause of cancer death
in New Zealand
So when the kit arrived in his
letterbox, Mr Paewai knew he would be taking
part.
“I wasn’t hesitant to do it but I did
procrastinate a bit. It’s not something anyone would be
jumping out of their seats to do, but it is so important to
In October, then crown monitor Dr Andrew Connolly was appointed to chair an Endoscopy User Group to implement recommendations to improve the board s colonoscopy services. In the same meeting, he told the board: “Category C shouldn’t exist. I’m not simply going to referee a group of people arguing about whether a patient is category A, B, or C.” On Monday, Connolly, who is now the chief medical officer for the Ministry of Health and a clinical advisor to the Southern DHB, said removing the category was simply a matter of bureaucracy. There had been a blanket ban on putting patients with symptoms on the category C waiting list since October, he said, but some patients had ended up on the list after a “scrap” over waiting list definitions, he said.
Free bowel screening is available throughout the entire South Island from today with residents of the West Coast becoming the latest population to benefit from the life-saving programme. West Coast is the 17th DHB to join the National Bowel Screening .
MARTIN DE RUYTER/Stuff
From early June, bowel screening kits will start arriving in the mailboxes of West Coast people aged 60 to 74, provided they are registered with a general practice. “Many people don’t realise that there might be a problem . taking the test and returning their test sample could quite literally be a life-saver.” The board also expected to detect some pre-cancerous and non-cancerous polyps (small growths) through the testing. “In these instances, the participants will become part of our surveillance programme. Finding and removing polyps early dramatically increases people’s chance of a successful outcome,” Wheble said. On the Coast, about 6505 people would be eligible to take part during the first two years of the programme, he said.