11. Question No. 11—HealthANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 11—Health11. ANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour) to the Minister of Health: What action is the Government taking to ensure New Zealanders living with cancer have access to high-quality care no matter who they are or where they live?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): Just over a week ago the Prime Minister and I released to the public a positive well-considered and comprehensive cancer action plan which delivers more medicines for more people through an immediate funding boost for Pharmac and a faster decision-making process. It delivers a greater focus on prevention and screening resulting in fewer cancers and earlier detection. We've appointed a new National Director of Cancer Control and are creating a single national cancer control network we are developing cancer-specific quality performance indicators to improve equity of care and we have delivered on our promise to New Zealanders affected by cancer to establish a cancer control agency that ensures consistent standards of care no matter who you are; no matter where you live.Angie Warren-Clark: Why is a cancer control agency necessary?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: This Government believes—as the last Labour-led Government did 14 years ago when it produced the previous comprehensive cancer action plan—that strong central leadership is required to coordinate and improve the spectrum of cancer prevention screening and care. My predecessor the Hon Annette King established the Cancer Control Council of New Zealand in 2005 to provide that leadership and during that time New Zealand's performance on cancer care moved in the right direction on key measures including survival rates and cancer incidence. The previous Government I note decided in 2015 that leadership was no longer required. I think most New Zealanders will agree that it is time to restore strong leadership to cancer care to drive implementation of our action plan and eliminate variations in treatment across the country.Angie Warren-Clark: What is the focus of the cancer action plan?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: This is a 10-year plan that covers the full spectrum of cancer control from prevention and screening to treatment and palliative care. It sets out pathways to improve our cancer care workforce and to sharpen research and data collection. All of these factors are critical to the delivery of successful services. In the end though the plan's No. 1 focus is improving outcomes for New Zealanders. Importantly it recognises that improvement is required most of all for Māori. If we lift the standard of cancer care for Māori to the point where they experience the same incidence survival and cure rates as other New Zealanders this country will be one of the best-performing societies in the world when it comes to the overall impact of this disease on our people. I promised to deliver better cancer care for New Zealanders. This plan is a huge step in the right direction.Hon Michael Woodhouse: How will he know whether he is improving outcomes for New Zealanders given that the interim cancer plan contains not one target for improvement?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: Across New Zealand there will be standards which will be available to be seen as to whether they are being met. They are being led by the director of cancer control. We have already seen with bowel screening that there is variation across the country. Unfortunately this Government inherited a situation where we have a postcode lottery for cancer care. We've already invested in linear accelerator machines and we intend to have standards which are met to support the clinicians who are not meeting those standards so that we raise the overall care across New Zealand. There's been nearly a decade of neglect and we are working hard to make sure New Zealanders get the care they deserve in this country.