Health Minister Andrew Little says the Cancer Control Agency report is a "benchmark" for funding decisions but he is not able to say what will specifically go to cancer care.
Health Minister Andrew Little. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
The first report from the country's new Cancer Control Agency, Te Aho o Te Kahu, highlights Māori are still twice as likely as non-Māori to die from the disease.
The agency, set up in 2019, has found cancer survival rates for all ethnicities have improved over the last 20 years but not as quickly as in other high-income countries.
Around 25,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in New Zealand, of whom nearly 3000 are Māori.
Māori are 20 percent more likely to develop cancer, and twice as likely as non-Māori to die from it.
Cancer Society chief medical officer Chris Jackson has said government funding of primary care, treatment and screening programmes has been allowed to drift over the last 15 years.
Jackson said New Zealand had fallen behind similar countries and said it was time for a financial commitment from the government for initiatives like rolling out a bowel cancer screening more quickly and piloting a lung cancer screening programme.
Health Minister Andrew Little said the Agency's report was the long-needed stocktake on cancer treatment in New Zealand.
"It's a good starting point to understand what it is that we need to do so we can develop strategies and funding paths" - Health Minister Andrew Little
"It gives us a benchmark now from which we can work up cancer strategies and funding for cancers as we make general reforms to the health system."
Little told Morning Report the government would put more money into many areas of health, but was not able to say how much would go to cancer treatment.
"I can't say specifically what is going to happen in different areas, different demands for additional health services.
"At the moment we are putting together our decisions on broader health reforms.
"We will put more money into a whole heap of areas."
Little said this government's track record was to put more money into funding health generally, including cancer treatment.
"At the moment the priority is the broader health reforms so that we have a better structure within which decisions are made so depending on where you are in the county doesn't determine what level of cancer treatment and health care that you get. And then we deal with the funding issues that follow that."
Little agreed New Zealand was behind Australia in cancer care, as the report said.
He noted one of the recommendations to government was for a Māori health authority and said there was a "massive workforce planning challenge" including for more Māori practitioners.
The Agency's report said less than 4 percent of those involved directly in cancer care identify as Māori.