Steady progress on cancer strategy

Media release

From: Cancer Control Council

For distribution: 11.00am 23 August 2007

Steady progress on cancer strategy

Steady progress has been made during the first two years of turning the Cancer Control Strategy into action.

More than 70 percent of the milestones in the first phase of the Cancer Control Strategy Action Plan have been achieved or are in progress. But more needs to be done in some areas.

These are the findings of the Cancer Control Council’s first evaluation and monitoring report, Mapping Progress: The First Two Years of the Cancer Control Strategy Action Plan 2005-2010.

Cancer control is an organised approach to reducing the burden of cancer. It includes prevention, screening and early detection, treatment, support and rehabilitation, palliative care, and surveillance and research.

Council Chair Dame Catherine Tizard says good progress has been made towards achieving milestones under the Action Plan’s goals of preventing cancer, screening for it and detecting it early on.

“There are several reasons for this good progress – New Zealand’s long-standing tobacco control programme, the recent push on the Healthy Eating, Healthy Action Strategy and the long-standing existence of the National Screening Unit,” she said.

However, progress towards achieving milestones under the remaining four goals of the strategy has been less systematic, though there are many good initiatives happening within district health boards and at a local level.

These are the goals for diagnosis and treatment, improving the quality of life for people with cancer, improving the way services are delivered, and research and surveillance.

Council Deputy Chair Associate Professor Chris Atkinson says delays in these areas must be addressed if the goals of the Cancer Control Strategy are to be achieved.

“We also need to ensure the many good initiatives happening at a local level, and within particular DHBs, are taken up consistently across New Zealand,” he said.

The report says one of the key developments in the past year has been the establishment of four regional cancer networks. These are similar to networks set up in the United Kingdom and Australia, and will work to ensure cancer services are co-ordinated across health providers.

Assoc Prof Atkinson says ensuring these networks are established successfully is essential to achieving progress in many of the areas highlighted in the report.

The report, Mapping Progress: The First Two Years of the Cancer Control Strategy Action Plan 2005-2010, is available, in full and in summary, from the Council's website: www.cancercontrolcouncil.govt.nz.

The Council is an independent advisory body appointed by the Minister of Health. It gives strategic advice directly to the Minister as well as to the wider cancer control community.

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Achievements under the Cancer Control Strategy

The following initiatives are examples of some of the concrete steps that have been taken towards achieving the goals of the Cancer Control Strategy.

Programme set up for young cancer survivors
The Late Effects Assessment Programme (LEAP) for young people is a national programme designed to assess whether young cancer survivors have suffered any long-term physical or psychological effects from their treatment. It provides long-term follow-up and care and is funded by the Child Cancer Foundation, CanTeen and the Ministry of Health.

Hospice, GPs and DHB join forces in Manawatu
A palliative care partnership has been set up in Manawatu to make it easier for patients and their families and whanau to gain access to a mix of specialist and generalist palliative care. Under the partnership patients are cared for by general practitioners, practice nurses, palliative care co-ordinators and specialist hospice clinicians with the support of MidCentral District Health Board district nurses. An evaluation by Otago University says the partnership model could be copied in other areas, both nationally and internationally.

Patients’ stories change services in Hutt Valley and Wairarapa
Hutt Valley DHB is one of several district health boards to have interviewed cancer patients about their experiences, needs and frustrations as they journey through different cancer services. As a result of the study, which was funded by the Ministry of Health, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa DHBs have changed the way they plan and deliver some services. Interviewers spoke particularly to Maori people and their whanau, Pacific people and their families, and people and families from disadvantaged urban and rural communities.

Care co-ordinators support patients in Waikato
Waikato DHB is one of several district health boards to have introduced care co-ordinators or 'patient navigators' – dedicated people who support patients as they move between different cancer services. Waikato DHB is also part of the Midland Cancer Network which has been set up to co-ordinate cancer services across the Midland region.

ENDS

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