Bowel Screening

Bowel cancer screenings in New Zealand are delivered through national programmes overseen by Te Whatu Ora. Most invitations and reminders are sent directly to patients, you can encourage your population in your practice in supporting awareness and follow-up care.

Screening Criteria Eligibility

• Bowel screening is offered every 2 years to people aged 58 to 74 years who live in the following regions:

  • Northland
  • Auckland (including Counties Manukau and Waitematā)
  • South Island.

  It is available to people aged 60 to 74 years who live in other parts of New Zealand. From March 2026, the lower starting age of 58 will be in place throughout the country.
  
  

Who contacts patients?

For Bowel Screening:

• Te Whatu Ora manages the national screening programmes
• Patients are usually invited or sent information directly by the screening programme
• In some cases, local healthcare providers may also contact eligible patients to support participation

The role of the general practice

General practices play a supporting and trusted role, alongside the national programmes.

Practices are encouraged to:

• Encourage eligible patients to take part in screening
• Provide information and answer questions
• Reassure patients about what screening involves
• Support patients who are unsure whether they are eligible or have received an invitation
• Provide clinical follow-up and ongoing care if a screening result is positive

How to Educate your patients with Vensa on Medtech Evolution

Practices may choose to send general health encouragement messages to increase screening uptake.

See here for instruction how to send bulk texts from query builder.

Example: encouraging patient participation using Te Whatu Ora Resources

Example Message 1

Your GP team at [Practice name] supports the bowel screening programmes. If you receive an invitation or screening kit, we encourage you to take part. Screening can find cancer early, even before symptoms. Learn more at timetobowelscreen.nz . If you have already received your bowel screening kit, please ignore this message.

 Example Message 2

Your GP team at [Practice name] supports the bowel screening programmes. If you receive an invitation or screening kit, we encourage you to take part. Screening can find cancer early, even before symptoms. If you have not received the kit, call 0800 924 432 or email: info@bowelscreening.health.nz . More info: timetobowelscreen.nz . If you have already received your bowel screening kit, please ignore this message.

For patient informed consent timetobowelscreen.nz has information in multiple languages and we encourage you to include it in your message. We recommend that you run this query at least every 6 months to build awareness with your eligible population.

Vensa’s next version of the recall automation tool will give you the ability to schedule these recalls so they are automatically sent at a set frequency (e.g. every 6 months) to targeted populations. Please ensure your practice classifications are updated and in alignment with the national screening register.

^{This page is provided for general information only. While we aim to keep content accurate and up to date, we do not guarantee completeness or accuracy. Screening programmes, eligibility, and delivery may change. For the most current and official information, please refer to Te Whatu Ora at info.health.nz.}

^{References: https://info.health.nz/health-topics/keeping-healthy/cancer-screening/bowel-screening}