Māori Party welcomes more funding for cancer care

te-pati-maori

Thu May 17 2012 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Māori Party welcomes more funding for cancer care

Thursday, 17 May 2012, 5:13 pm
Press Release: The Maori Party

The Hon Tariana Turia

Maori Party Co-Leader | MP for Te Tai Hauauru

Thursday 17 May 2012

Māori Party welcomes more funding for better and faster cancer care

Co-leader of the Māori Party, Tariana Turia, is pleased that Budget 2012 is delivering an additional $33million for improved cancer services and hopes that priority can be given to addressing the large differences in cancer survival rates between Maori and non-Maori.

Mrs Turia said “the CancerTrends study, published by the Department of Public Health at University of Otago just last month, highlighted a significant gap between Maori and non-Maori survival rates, and an enduring gap for those on low incomes”.

The study showed that excess mortality remained about 29% higher amongst Maori across time.

“There are some immediate changes that could be made to make the difference – good quality prevention; earlier diagnosis; improved surgical treatment, more effective medication and greatly improved care” Mrs Turia said, “and of course faster access to a specialist, and faster access to treatment is an important way to address cancer inequalities.”

“We need to get much greater gains in survival for Māori; and to do what we can to address the significant disparities in cancer mortality for low-income patients”.

“We are particularly pleased at the decision to invest in dedicated cancer nurses, and to coordinate care and support. This is about having a dedicated single point of contact to support whanau in the cancer journey – and we welcome that” said Mrs Turia

ENDS

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