NEWSFLASH – 5 May, 2012
Federal Government announces $50m budget boost for bowel cancer screening
Today the Federal Government announced it’s spending $50m to extend the National Screening Program to include Australians turning 60 from next year, 70 year olds from 2015 then progressively introducing two yearly screening for all Australians aged 50 to 74 from 2017. We are very excited about this development, particularly because this may be one of the few new funding initiatives in a Budget that has been widely referred to as ‘tight’.
THANK YOU
The NSW community played a special role in helping secure this funding – your efforts, together with over 24,000 other Australians helped to ensure that new funding for bowel cancer screening was included in the Budget.
A message from Professor Ian Olver
Media Release [Cancer Council Australia]:
Govt hailed for milestone step towards reducing nation’s cancer toll
Australians are dying unnecessarily every week because of lengthy delays to the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program’s expansion – simply because the Government will not allocate funding to add new age groups to the program.
The program’s introduction was an election commitment from both Labor and the Coalition way back in 2004. More than seven years later the program remains restricted to a one-off test for people turning 50, 55 and 65, instead of screening every two years for all Australians aged 50 and over as recommended by the Government’s own National Health and Medical Research Council.
To date, your support has led to the Australian Government reinstating the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program with a commitment of $140million in funding in 2011.
But the program is still falling a long way short of its potential to save lives. We need to change the perception that Bowel Cancer is an issue that can be deferred.
Bowel cancer is a common cancer – it’s the second most common in both women and men:
- More than 13,000 Australians get bowel cancer each year,
- of which more than 4,700 are NSW residents.
Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer related death in Australia:
- Over 4,000 Australians die from bowel cancer each year and 1,700 of these deaths are in NSW alone.
- Every week 30 Australians are dying unnecessarily.
Solution
- Bowel Cancer is Australia’s most expensive cancer, costing an estimated $1 billion each year to the health system – mostly in taxpayer-funded pharmaceutical and hospital costs. By expanding the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program the Australian Government could reduce health system expenditure and save lives.
- As a step towards full implementation of the program Cancer Council Australia is asking the Government to invest an additional $15 million per annum to add 60- and 70-year-olds from July 2012 (modest investment in a federal budget of $380 billion dollars).
- To put the funding proposal into context, it would cost the average Australian taxpayer a little over 1c a week to screen 60- and 70-year-olds for bowel cancer. Or, to put it another way, this life-saving measure equates to around .004% (or one/twenty-five thousandth) of the $380 billion in taxpayer funds that the Australian Government is projected to spend next financial year.
Action
Let the Government know funding for Bowel Cancer screening funding cannot be deferred any longer:
- Tell your MP to use their influence to ensure bowel screening is available to all Australians 50 and over
- Share your story
- Tell others about the Get Behind Bowel Screening campaign by forwarding a link to this page on [http://www.canceraction.com.au/bowel-screening/]
To learn about how else you can take action on this issue or other issues then sign up to be the first to know. By signing up you’ll be the first to know about what’s happening in our campaigns and how you can get involved.
Do you have your own idea to promote, mobilise and take action on this issue? Please contact your local Cancer Council NSW office to discuss your ideas and the support they may be able to offer.
Resources
See below for a list of resources that may help you take action on this issue:
- Cancer Council Australia Pre-Budget Submission 2012-2013
- Bowel Cancer Awareness Week
- Facts about bowel cancer
- Lobbying fact sheet
Focus on the evidence
- Medical Journal of Australia
- Croakey 5.7.10 (health blog in Crikey): Kathy Flitcroft, Research Fellow with the Sydney School of Public Health’s Screening Test and Evaluation Program
- Croakey 25.7.10 (health blog in Crikey): Terry Slevin, CEO – Cancer Council Western Australia
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