Port Macquarie resident Dr Guy Hingston, Australian cancer surgeon and author of The Gold Book Service Manuals, said the Federal Budget has done little to tackle the 4000 Australian deaths each year from bowel cancer.
“Just continuing funding for the current program is not nearly enough,” he said.
“We need the Federal Government to immediately endorse the 12-year-old recommendations from the Australian Government National Health & Medical Research Council that state that everyone in Australia over 50 years of age should have two-yearly faecal occult blood test bowel cancer screening
“Australia has now reduced the annual death rate of cervical cancer to around 200 women per year, mostly due to a very successful two-yearly screening program.
“We now need an equally effective bowel cancer screening program, and the proposed Budget does very little to address this.”
Dr Hingston said we need politicians to stand up and take national leadership for reducing the high bowel cancer death rate in Australia.
“They need to immediately fund the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program to roll out two-yearly screening for all Australians over 50,” he said.
“This is the least they can do to tackle the high death rate caused by bowel cancer.”
