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Bowel cancer testing - Source: ONE News -
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New Zealanders will now be able to test themselves for a cancer
that kills more people than breast and prostate cancer
combined.
Pharmacybrands has today launched a do-it-yourself bowel cancer
test kit, which will cost between $50 to $60. The kits will be
available in 300 pharmacies nationwide from next week.
Bowel cancer kills more than 1200 people each year.
Patients will collect a small stool sample at home and post it off
to a lab in Australia, which will then contact the patient's New
Zealand GP with the results.
If it is positive more investigative tests such as a colonoscopy
may be required.
Supporters of bowel cancer screening say the test will allow people
with a family history of the disease to monitor their own health
for the first time.
However the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) say they do not
support the pharmacy-based programme.
NZMA chairman Peter Foley says he is concerned the programme has been set up without consultation with the medical profession and that it appears to be a "piecemeal approach" to healthcare.
"GPs are better placed to provide this service as they are aware of a patient's history, which is a very important part of screening. General practice, the enrolled medical home of 97% of New Zealanders, is where screening must occur so that it is linked to the individual's healthcare and doctors can be properly involved," Dr Foley says.
He says that while pharmacists need to play greater roles in the health sector, allowing them to deliver programmes such as bowel screening will splinter integrated healthcare.
Dr Susan Parry, from the National Bowel Cancer Working Group, agreed. She added that doctors would be able to provide more answers to patients.
"The general practitioner can talk to them about the pitfalls of it, talk to them about what a positive test result means, and that there might not be speedy access to a colonoscopy - that they might have to pay for a colonoscopy if the test is positive."
However, Pharmacybrands' Alison Van Wyk said the kits were "very much an integrated platform" and they welcomed the inclusion of a doctor.
There is no prospect of national screening in New Zealand until at least 2016, with the government's bowel cancer screening pilot programme in Waitemata still six months away.
