Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Government is taking action to ensure New Zealanders living with cancer have access to high quality care no matter who they are, or where they live.

But, National's spokesperson for Health Michael Woodhouse believes the Government has been embarrassed into action on cancer by the National Party and has fallen short.

'Cancer touches just about every one of us at some stage in our lives. On average 66 people every day are diagnosed with cancer – and they deserve world-class care,” says Jacinda.

'We campaigned on improving cancer care and establishing a national cancer agency because after years of underfunding by the previous government our standard of care is variable and we have work to do to ensure better outcomes for Maori and Pacific people.”

On Sunday the Government released the Cancer Action Plan for 2019-2029. Key actions to improve cancer care and outcomes include:

• More medicines for more people through an immediate funding boost for PHARMAC and faster decision making process
• Establish a Cancer Control Agency to ensure consistent standards nationwide
• Strengthen our focus on prevention and screening – fewer cancers, earlier detection
• Appoint an National Director of Cancer Control and create a single National Cancer Control Network
• Develop cancer-specific Quality Performance Indicators to improve equity of care

'Modernising our approach to cancer care and improving survival rates is a long-term challenge, but there are a number of things we can do to make a difference straight away,” says Jacinda.

'The first step was the announcement earlier this month of funding for 12 new Linear Accelerators for radiation treatment, including plans to put machines into Hawke's Bay, Taranaki and Northland for the first time.

'Today we're also announcing an extra $60 million in funding for PHARMAC ($20 million this year and $40 million in 2020/21). PHARMAC has advised us this will mean it can fund a range of new medicines, including several new cancer treatments.

'From next year, PHARMAC will also speed up its decision making by considering applications for funding at the same time as Medsafe assesses the safety of new medicines rather than waiting until that work is complete as it does currently. Work on options for early access to new cancer medicines is also progressing well,” says Jacinda.

Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government has listened to calls for strong central leadership and will deliver the promised Cancer Control Agency by December 1 2019.

'Cancer care is woven into so much of the work that our public health service does, so while the Agency will have its own chief executive, it makes sense for it to be housed within the Ministry of Health,” says David.

National's spokesperson for Health Michael Woodhouse says the Minister of Health's plan is a watered down version of work that National already had under way.

'After nine years of opposition and two years of sitting on his hands in Government, Minister Clark has been dragged kicking and screaming into some sort of strategy because of the National Party,” says Michael.

'Commitments including prevention, screening, treatment and palliative care are meaningful objectives, which can be found in the already established New Zealand Cancer Plan 2015-2018.

'Rather than progress the strategy already put in place, the Minister has played politics and ground cancer development to a halt,” says Michael.

'The consequence being that 13 of 20 District Health Boards have shown poorer performance against the Faster Cancer Treatment target under this Government. Despite this, the Government's plan makes no reference to targets for faster cancer treatment.”

Dr David Clark has also appointed an interim director for the national cancer control centre.

'I'm also pleased to announce that leading public health physician and cancer epidemiologist Professor Diana Sarfati has been appointed interim National Director of Cancer Control, starting immediately. She will lead work to improve the quality of treatment,” says David.

'An immediate priority will be establishing quality performance indicators for specific cancer types. This will mean we can measure progress towards consistent care across DHBs.

'We are also combining the four current regional cancer control networks into a National Network to help remove regional variations in care,” says David.

Michael Woodhouse says 'this is too little too late”.

'This shows a complete disregard for the many families resorting to massive loans and Givealittle pages to afford proper cancer treatment,” says Michael.

'In September 2017 the Minister claimed he had a ‘fully costed' and ‘independently audited' cancer plan. The Government has repeatedly delayed the release of any strategy, being forced to scramble something together after National took decisive action on this life threatening issue,” says Michael.

Work on implementing the Cancer Action Plan begins immediately, but there is an opportunity for the public and health professionals to provide feedback on the Plan before it is finalised next year.

'This is a comprehensive ten-year Plan that covers the full spectrum of cancer control, from prevention and screening to treatment and palliative care. It looks at workforce issues, research and data collection – all of which are critical to the delivery of successful services,” says David.

'In the end, though, the Plan's number one focus is improving outcomes for New Zealanders. We want to see fewer cancers, earlier detection and better treatment for everyone living with cancer,” says David.

'It is shameful that it took an announcement from the Opposition to force movement from the Government on this issue,” says Michael. 'In the year of delivery, the Labour Government has again shown there is none.

'National also committed to setting up a $200 million fund dedicated to cancer drugs so that New Zealanders can get the treatment they need. The Government's desperate attempt to play catch up with a poor imitation of National's funding for cancer drugs is an embarrassment.”