The waiting list for colonoscopies has dropped by more than 80% since July last year.
At a meeting of the Southern District Health Board hospital advisory committee in Invercargill yesterday, SDHB gastroenterology clinical leader Dr Jason Hill told the committee by video link from Dunedin that endoscopy services at the DHB had gone from ‘‘woe to go''.
‘‘In July last year, we had a colonoscopy wait list of 1100 patients . . . in September this year it was down to 200,'' he said. The department was also routinely performing 150 colonoscopies a month when required, he said.
It was a remarkable turnaround from when he took the job in 2012. ‘‘It was a job which was very unpopular,'' he said. ‘‘We had a department in the paper every other month.
‘‘When I started, there were eight or nine colonoscopy waiting lists across the SDHB.'' Upon his appointment, he pushed for a single waiting list across the district and went about bringing down the number of patients on it.
‘‘It's all well and good to accept a patient on to a wait list, but if you don't perform the procedure, you aren't supplying the service you say you are providing.''
SDHB chief executive Carole Heatly said Dr Hill's leadership had been ‘‘exemplary'' in turning around the department. Dr Hill said while the department had improved, it was not time to become complacent and it needed to be future-proofed for demand in 15 years' time.
The department also needed to work to improve patient experience, he said.
