68134 (2024). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister of Health

68134 (2024). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister of Health: What progress, if any, has been made in the quarter April to June 2024 to ‘Improve Māori and Pacific participation in breast, cervical and bowel screening through targeted approaches with Māori and Pacific community providers’ under section 2.3 ‘Mate pukupuku | People with cancer’ within Te Whatu Ora’s Te Pae Tata: Interim New Zealand Health Plan 2022?

Hon Dr Shane Reti: I am advised that during the April to June 2024 quarter, the following progress was made by Health New Zealand on breast, cervical, and bowel screening: • Breast screening coverage increased for Māori and Pacific. • Implementation of the Breastscreen Aotearoa Clinical Quality and Safety Improvement Review recommendations. • Implementation of HPV Primary Screening. • Cervical screening programmes continued. • Cervical Support to Screening initiatives continued, including development of a kaimahi workforce training programme. • Work began on a consumer, population identification, and registration pilot for cervical screening. • A community invitation campaign was rolled out. • A small-scale trial of barcoded bowel testing kits was completed in two districts. This enabled providers the ability to distribute kits directly to participants. • A pilot for people to return their completed bowel screening test kit directly to a community laboratory rather than by mail was underway in Waitematā, Counties Manukau, and Auckland Te Toka Tumai districts. • 300 primary care general practices and clinics took part in a focused bowel screening primary care campaign in May.