RNZCGP Concerned About Bowel Screening Programme

The Royal New Zealand College of GPs (RNZCGP) says it has serious concerns about the pharmacy-based bowel screening programme launched today.

RNZCGP Board member Dr Jim Vause says the programme will have some significant impacts on primary care, especially on patients who get tested.

“These tests carry a large degree of false positives – which will create unnecessary anxiety in some – and false negatives which will provide unwarranted reassurance to others.

“We are also concerned that patients who receive a positive test may then find they can’t get the necessary further investigations they need through the public system, or find themselves on significantly long waiting lists to do so.

“The roll-on effect of that will be that those patients with genuine symptoms of bowel cancer will find waiting times for colonoscopy and other diagnostic testing blowing out, due to all the people who have had positive test results from the pharmacy tests.

“This will impact greatest on those who can’t afford private investigations, further increasing the health disparities that we are trying to reduce.”

Dr Vause says the programme also makes a mockery of the bowel screening pilot, starting in Waitemata in October.

“There are a myriad of other issues which are critical to consider in any kind of screening including informed consent and the importance of understanding a patient's overall issues in considering whether or not to have a test.

“While there is a place for pharmacists playing a greater role in primary health care, screening isn’t simple because of the very significant chance of harm. For the sake of patients, it is essential that it remain with general practitioners and within the context of an individual’s overall health care.”

ENDS

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