Early detection is a good way to boost your odds against bowel cancer but New Zealand’s short supply of diagnostic firepower may be frustrating Kiwis’ efforts to help themselves.

For a decade, shortages of colonoscopy have been cited as a reason for not creating the kind of national screening programme shown overseas to reduce bowel cancer death rates by 15 per cent.

Health ministers have taken cautious steps and now the Government hopes to make a decision on a programme by year’s end. But years of baby steps can be expected – in a country that has among the highest rates of bowel cancer incidence and death in the developed world.

Read the full article here