If patients feel
they have been unfairly denied a colonoscopy at Dunedin
Hospital they should discuss it with their general
practitioner or contact his own office, Otago District Health
Board chief executive Brian Rousseau says.
He had not received any correspondence on the issue or been contacted by patients since the Otago Daily Times broke the news, more than week ago, of GP concerns about access to colonoscopy, he said.
The matter was raised with Mr Rousseau because it appeared some of those who had contacted the ODT may not have been on the list of concerns raised by the GPs in a recent survey organised by Southlink Health executive director Prof Murray Tilyard.
In that informal survey, 26 GPs cited 51 patients they were concerned about, including 25 patients they said had been refused colonoscopies who were later found to have cancer.
Health Minister Tony Ryall has called for an urgent report on the matter and the referrals cited by the GPs will be audited by the Southern Cancer Network once the GPs have provided the patient-identifying national health index numbers.
An October newsletter for Otago GPs shows the board is unable to meet its targets for waiting times for colonoscopies or gastroscopies.
The target waiting time for urgent colonoscopies is less than two weeks, but the existing waiting time is up to a month.
Semi-urgent cases should be seen in less than a month, but the current time is one to two months.
Routine cases, which should be seen in less than three months, are being seen in three to six months.
Differences in targets and actual waiting times are similar for gastroscopies, with routine cases waiting up to five months instead of less than three months.
The board is short about 1.5 full-time gastroenterologists.
In September, the board hospital advisory committee was advised the gastroenterology department would be adding a regular colonoscopy list, to be performed by a general surgeon, to improve the service.
Note: Colonoscopy is a procedure which examines the colon, while gastroscopy examines the upper digestive tract.
• Anyone wishing to contact Mr Rousseau's office should telephone Dunedin Hospital on 474-0999 and ask for Mr Rousseau's personal assistant.
elspeth.mclean@odt.co.nz