Mrs King said an announcement from Dr Coleman’s office about the Southern District Health Board’s entry to the bowel screening programme glossed over its relatively late entry.
The announcement reveals SDHB will be the first South Island board to have the new programme.
The timing itself is not new, as the Otago Daily Times previously reported it would start in the first half of 2018, and Dr Coleman’s spokeswoman said that was "now confirmed". SDHB and Counties Manukau would be the next DHBs after Waitemata, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa.
SDHB was doing "really well" in preparing for the programme, the spokeswoman said.Mrs King was not impressed.
"There is no need for him to gild the lily.
"[The South] has the highest incidence and highest death rate [from bowel cancer]," Mrs King said.
"Isn’t the aim to reduce the incidence and stop the deaths?
"It’s not to make the minister look good.
"Southern should have been in the first tranche."
Mrs King said there remained doubts about whether the system, including SDHB, was adequately resourced for the programme, which will trigger more colonoscopy and surgery. Mrs King and Dr Coleman frequently spar, and Dr Coleman often flings the former health minister’s record at her to deflect criticism.
This week, Dr Coleman labelled the former Labour government’s performance on child immunisation as "third world", citing low rates.
"Dr Coleman’s sounding more like Donald Trump at times with his made-up stories.
"Trump would say anything and say it was true.
"I get sick of the Minister of Health saying things that aren’t true," Mrs King said.
Mrs King said the Government was facing a raft of bad news in health.
"There’s been a hell of a lot of bad publicity."
Dr Coleman’s spokeswoman said the minister stood by his criticism of Labour’s immunisation record, which the current Government had improved.
