By Ally Mullord
Cancer organisations are calling for a Minister for Cancer and while the Prime Minister has said it’s unlikely, spokesperson Pru Etcheverry says “it’s important enough… we have a Minister for the World Cup”.
Ms Etcheverry is the executive director of the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation, one of a number of organisations that have joined under the alliance CANGO to provide “one voice for all patients”.
She says existing cancer services are “very good” but the incidence of cancer is rising, due in part to an ageing population, and services are under pressure as a result.
“People don’t need to be worried about the services we have in place - they’re good,” she says.
“We need to make sure that they are set up properly now and we are future-proofing them because this is a growing burden.”
Workforce is “a really big issue”, Ms Etcheverry says, with specialist nurses, carers and rural GPs some of the roles which are being placed under pressure.
“We have a fabulous workforce but they’re under pressure and they’re really, really heavily burdened and facing burnout, a lot of them.”
She says “an overarching strategy that someone had sole responsibility for” would be able to address a lot of the issues, and a Minister for Cancer would be able to facilitate this.
“We would love to see more investment in research, and there is opportunity here to do more in the area of prevention,” she says.
“In a way we’re really calling out for joined-up thinking, it’s not all just new investment… having services talking to services and IT systems linking.”
While John Key has said a Minister for Cancer is unlikely, CanGo is seeing his involvement as a positive step.
“We were really pleased the Prime Minister actually responded to this and so quickly,” Ms Etcheverry says.
Watch the video for the full interview
3 News