Price had started True Proactive after discovering that bowel screening wasn\u2019t routinely available until age 58 in New Zealand. It is available at age 50 in the UK, plus younger patients can buy their own tests. <\/p>\n
Bowel cancer is the biggest cause of cancer deaths in Kiwis under 50.<\/p>\n
Documents released to the Herald under the Official Information Act reveal Health NZ was unsure how to respond to someone offering bowel cancer screening outside the national screening programme. <\/p>\n
Dr Clive Price. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
An interview with Price on Newstalk ZB<\/a> in April prompted emails among Health NZ staff. <\/p>\n Those emails reveal that a senior official \u201canonymously wrote to Dr Price\u201d to ask questions masquerading as a patient. Price responded, and the information he provided was delivered to the National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme Clinical Oversight Group (COG).<\/p>\n This subterfuge was commended by colleagues. <\/p>\n The official\u2019s manager responded \u201cThanks … useful for COG discussion\u201d while another senior official replied \u201cDefinitely, great work!\u201d<\/p>\n Chair of GP advocacy group General Practitioners Aotearoa, Buzz Burrell, was taken aback by Health NZ\u2019s tactics when told of them by the Herald. <\/p>\n “It seems extraordinary. I naively assumed that Health New Zealand [as] an organisation would be cleaner, really.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something dirty tricks tactics about that sort of approach. It almost puts every doctor on notice that every patient coming in could be a secret shopper.\u201d<\/p>\n The Health NZ emails also reveal staff pointing out that the contract Health NZ had to buy the tests was non-exclusive. \u201cMaybe something that could be discussed at the next contract renewal in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about why it was considering using its buying power in this way, Health NZ told the Herald \u201cHealth NZ did not consider making its contract with the supplier exclusive. A check of the terms of the existing contract with the supplier was undertaken. At no stage was a change to the contract proposed or considered.\u201d<\/p>\n Health NZ responds<\/p>\n In a statement, Alana Ewe-Snow, national director, prevention screening, National Public Health Service, told the Herald, \u201cOne of our staff members approached the company … using their real name and personal email address. They did not misrepresent their identity or seek confidential information.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no intention to obtain information under false pretences. The issue is therefore not one of false identity or deception.<\/p>\n \u201cWe acknowledge that a direct approach to Dr Price would have been a more appropriate way to seek this information.<\/p>\n \u201cHealth NZ expects staff to act with integrity and transparency in carrying out their responsibilities. Where information is sought for Health NZ official purposes, staff should generally engage openly and in an official capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile some parts of Health NZ undertake covert information-gathering activities in specific regulatory settings, this matter did not arise in that context.\u201d<\/p>\n The screening team is reinforcing expectations, Ewe-Snow told the Herald. <\/p>\n Citing employment-related confidentiality, she would not comment on whether the official and the two managers who endorsed their deception would face disciplinary action.<\/p>\n Swamping the system?<\/p>\n Price repeatedly told the Herald he didn\u2019t want to criticise Health NZ and, as a recent arrival to New Zealand, he wants to foster a positive relationship with them.<\/p>\n \u201cI think most of the issues raised could be clarified or rectified relatively easily through direct discussion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Various officials and clinicians had expressed concerns that private bowel screening tests like those offered by Price could swamp the public health system \u2013 because positive test results should be followed by colonoscopies and publicly funded colonoscopies are under pressure<\/a>. <\/p>\n Just over a quarter of the funding allocated for lowering the screening age to 56 this September is for more colonoscopies.<\/p>\n It is feared that privately funded tests could therefore result in wealthier younger people taking colonoscopy spots in the public system.<\/p>\n Health NZ officials and other clinicians have raised concerns that True Proactive\u2019s website didn\u2019t make it clear that a positive result from a True Proactive test did not mean that a patient would be eligible for a publicly funded colonoscopy.<\/p>\n Price told the Herald his website always said this, but at one point it \u201cwas not as clear as it should be\u201d.<\/p>\n Price told the Herald that almost all of True Proactive\u2019s 59 patients with positive results had health insurance. Only four patients were potentially adding to the public system\u2019s load, he said.<\/p>\n Second-biggest cancer killer<\/p>\n Bowel cancer<\/a> is second only to lung cancer for overall cancer deaths in New Zealand. In 2023, 1313 Kiwis died from bowel cancer.<\/p>\nDr Buzz Burrell is chair of GP advocacy group General Practitioners Aotearoa \/ Corey Fleming <\/p>\n