The starting age for the National Bowel Screening Programme is being lowered from 60 to 58 across the central and lower North Island from this week, with MidCentral set to follow next, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.

With this step, 58 becomes the starting age across the country apart from MidCentral, which will join once its supporting systems are in place. The change will make around 40,000 additional people eligible in the first year. Most newly eligible 58- and 59-year-olds will be invited for free screening by April 2027.

On the Government’s estimates, dropping the starting age to 58 is expected to prevent an additional 771 bowel cancers and 566 deaths over 25 years, compared with the previous 60–74 age band. The rollout is being staged to match available workforce and endoscopy capacity. The Government says it ultimately wants to align the screening age with Australia, with this move described as the first milestone.

Alongside the age change, the FIT for Symptomatic pathway is being expanded to help prioritise colonoscopies. The pathway gives people of any age who have bowel symptoms access to a faecal immunochemical test, similar to the one used in routine screening. Clinicians can then use the result to triage who needs urgent colonoscopy. Officials expect this to cut non‑urgent colonoscopy referrals by at least 30 percent, freeing capacity for those at higher risk as screening expands.

The symptomatic FIT pathway is already in place in Auckland, Counties Manukau, Waitematā, Waikato and Hawke’s Bay. MidCentral will start on 20 April, with full national implementation planned by the end of September.

The Ministry says lowering the screening age will increase demand for follow‑up colonoscopies, and that the symptomatic FIT pathway is intended to ensure those at highest risk are prioritised while still improving detection for people with symptoms who are younger than the screening age.