Sir Collin Tukuitonga
The failure of multiple governments to address inequities in bowel cancer screening has led to “the potentially avoidable death of thousands of New Zealanders”, says a New Zealand Medical Journal editorial.
“In any aspect of government responsibility other than health, such omissions with such resulting mortality would likely have led to a royal inquiry,” the editorial reads.
Titled “The Government’s pathetic response to lowering the age of bowel cancer screening,” the editorial (NZ Med J 2025; 14 March) is written by Frank Frizelle, a colorectal surgeon at Christchurch Hospital and journal editor-in-chief, and Oliver Waddell, a surgical registrar and PhD candidate at the University of Otago.
