Route to Cancer Diagnosis Report

As part of our monitoring and Quality Improvement Programme Te Aho o Te Kahu released a report on the number of people diagnosed with cancer within 30-days of an emergency or acute (unplanned) hospital admission by districts around the motu (country).

People who are diagnosed following an emergency or unplanned hospital admission often present with severe symptoms, indicating an advanced stage of cancer. It is critical to diagnose a person’s cancer as early as possible to provide them with the best chance and options for successful treatment. Ideally a person would be diagnosed through primary and community care, such as their GP or screening programmes. They would also be supported by connected, culturally responsive secondary health services, that are trusted by the person and their whānau.

Our report showed:

  • Aotearoa New Zealand experiences a high rate of being diagnosed with cancer after an emergency or unplanned admission - 23.9 percent across 22 different types of cancer, with some being much lower (for example, breast cancer) and others, (for example lung cancer and pancreatic cancer) being much higher
  • that Māori are more likely to be diagnosed following an emergency admission than people of other ethnicities in almost all districts
  • that certain districts consistently perform better than others (i.e., lower rates of diagnosis following unplanned admission), which may point to stronger connections between primary and secondary care services and/or more effective primary care/community diagnostics models that could be scaled and used in other parts of the country.

We have shared the report with Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora. community and primary health care providers and other key agencies. We will collaborate with them on ways to improve cancer detection and diagnosis processes, with the aim of reducing cancer diagnoses via emergency admission across Aotearoa New Zealand.

You can read the full and a summary version of the Route to Diagnosis Report on our webpage.

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