Pathology workforce crisis threatens cancer screening expansion in New Zealand

New Zealand’s health ministry is expanding free bowel and cervical cancer screening, lowering the bowel-screening age to 56 and adding 786,000 women to the cervical programme next year. However, gynaecological pathologist Kenwright says the pathology workforce is “at a cliff edge”, with an ageing staff and a deficit of about 30 specialists, leading to a “traffic jam” of slides and delays of up to two weeks for urgent cases.

While Health Minister Simeon Brown highlighted a $65 million boost that raised the number of procedures, no additional resources have been earmarked for the laboratories that analyse biopsies. The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) urges the government to fund 23 new pathology training positions at a cost of $3.7 million per year, but the minister has not committed. Patient advocate Malcolm Mulholland warns that prolonged diagnostic times risk poorer outcomes and even death.