A new National Cancer Screening Register aimed at saving more lives through increased detection, treatment and prevention of some of the country’s biggest killers will be the focus of legislation introduced by the Turnbull Government as one its first priorities in the new Parliament.
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Health Minister Sussan Ley will introduce the National Cancer Screening Register Bill 2016 to establish a new national register, which will replace eight separate State and Territory cervical cancer registers and an outdated and fragmented bowel screening system.
Ms Ley said the new innovative measures will ensure Australia remains a world leader in the early detection of cancers to save more lives.
Changes to the National Cervical Cancer Screening Program from 1 May 2017 will introduce a more effective cervical cancer test – the human papillomavirus (HPV) test – to replace the two-yearly Pap test.
Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in Australia with about 4000 Australians dying each year. The expanded National Bowel Cancer Screening Program will roll out a free, at home bowel cancer screening kit to Australians aged 50 to 74 years every two years by 2020.
Ms Ley said that protection of personal information in the register would be critical and it would be built in accordance with strict data security requirements and Commonwealth cybersecurity guidelines for new infrastructure.
Telstra Health will be the service provider after being appointed by the Department of Health through an arms-length independent evaluation process and it will be required to comply with all legal and legislative requirements.