Check if you're eligible for bowel screening

Free bowel screening is offered every 2 years to:

• People aged 58 to 74, living in the Northland and Auckland areas (including Counties Manukau and Waitematā), and people living in the South Island.
• People aged 60 to 74 living in the rest of Aotearoa New Zealand (the Central and Midland regions of the North Island). 
• People eligible for publicly funded health care. 

Publicly funded health and disability — Health New Zealandexternal link

You will be sent a bowel screening kit around the time of your next birthday or contacted by a local healthcare provider.

The starting age for bowel screening is being lowered to 58 for everyone. The first stage begins in October 2025 in the Northern region and South Island, and the second stage will begin in March 2026 for the rest of the country.

To find out if you are eligible, call us on 0800 924 432

If you live in Northern | Te Tai Tokerau region or in the South Island | Te Waipounamu

If you live in the Midland | Te Manawa Taki or Central | Te Ikaroa regions:

Free bowel screening is offered every 2 years to:

• Māori and Pacific Peoples aged 50 to 74 living in the MidCentral area
• Māori and Pacific Peoples living in the Waikato area who:
  • turned 50 on or before 4 December 2024, up to the age of 74
  • have lived in Waikato between 5 December 2022 and 4 December 2024 and are still living there
• Māori and Pacific Peoples living in the Tairāwhiti area who:
  • turned 50 on or before 8 October 2025, up to the age of 74
  • have lived in Tairāwhiti between 9 October 2023 and 8 October 2025 and are still living there
• People moving between the three pilot districts who meet the above eligibility criteria.

Lowering the starting age of bowel screening to 58 years will make screening available to about 122,000 more people in the first year.

Bowel screening requires support and treatment services to be available, such as colonoscopy for people who have a positive test. To ensure that the best possible services are provided by the health system, people who are newly eligible are invited on a staggered basis, around the time of their next birthday.

This is the approach that has been used by the National Bowel Screening Programme since it began to rollout in 2017. People in the eligible age range are then sent a bowel screening test kit every 2 years.

Everyone who was 58 or 59 when age range extension was introduced in their region will be invited within a year. This means all newly eligible people throughout the country will have been invited for free bowel screening by the end of March 2027. People who were aged 57 when their region introduced age extension will receive a kit around the time they turn 58.