Health Minister Simeon Brown says the rollout of a new breast cancer screening programme for women aged 70-74 will be complete by October 2029. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Health Minister Simeon Brown says the rollout of a new breast cancer screening programme for women aged 70-74 will be complete by October 2029. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Health Minister Simeon Brown has defended the rollout of new breast cancer screening to women aged 70-74, which will not be complete until 2029, a fact not made clear when National campaigned on the policy at the last election.
The introduction of the scheme has begun in the Nelson-Marlborough region,where 370 women in that age cohort have been screened under the policy since it began last October.
Last year, the then-Health Minister Shane Reti said the programme would be rolled out during the current Parliamentary term. Now, it seems, that process will not be completed until the end of the next one.
Labour’s health spokeswoman Ayesha Verrall said there are about 5000 women aged 70 to 74 in the Nelson-Marlborough region. She discovered, via Parliamentary written questions, that the number of women screened was 275 in the period to May 2025.
She said the fact the nationwide rollout would not be complete until 2029 was a “broken promise”.
“To only have screened a fraction of a percent of the eligible women is a broken promise and shows how incapable this Government is of delivering health services for New Zealanders,” she said.
Labour health spokewoman Ayesha Verrall during the Health select committee hearing, Parliament, Wellington, 03 December, 2024. NZME photograph by Mark Mitchell
Brown said eligibility was being brought online progressively to avoid overwhelming the system.
The Nelson-Marlborough region was the first to deliver the new scheme last October and the nationwide rollout will start in the same month this year.
Brown said the programme had begun with women aged 70 and 74 (who had not been screened in the past two years) and did not yet include women aged 71 to 73. This was to target people who had not recently had a screening while ensuring the workforce was not overwhelmed by a large cohort all at once.
“It will be progressively extended to people between 70 and 74 as the rollout expands,” he said.
“The number who are eligible is growing as the rollout is taking place.”
Simeon Brown Minister of Health gives a speech and answers questions regarding Health Reform at MinterEllisonRuddWatts offices in downtown Auckland/Tamaki Makaurau.
NZME photograph by Alex Burton 07 March 2025
Brown said there were an estimated 1600 women aged 70 or 74 in the Nelson-Marlborough region.
He said that up until May, screenings were only being “offered”. A new computer system means eligible women are being contacted directly to come forward for a screening.
“We’ve seen a much greater uptake since then. This is about making sure the systems are in place ahead of the national rollout that begins in October,” Brown said.
He said expanding the reach of the scheme would follow a similar pattern and would not be completed out until October 2029 because it was important to “manage demand on the system”.
“There will be further information announced later this year,” he said.
Verrall said the phased rollout would mean some people missing out.
“This is a broken promise. Women understood screening would be promised at the election. It now turns out many of those women will never be able to access the screening they were promised,” she said.
Verrall, who was Health Minister in the last Government, said Labour had not campaigned on increasing the screening age because officials had told her it would be “very challenging because of staffing constraints on screening”.
“Nonetheless, the National Party did not change its position – now they are letting women down,” she said.
