The Southern District Health Board’s colonoscopy service has been subject of several highly critical reports in recent years, reviews which prompted then board chairman Dave Cull to apologise and pledge that improvements would be made.
That included the appointment of an oversight group to monitor the service.
Its chairman, Auckland surgeon Andrew Connolly, told the board in his final report to it the service had come "incredibly far" in the past two years and compared with other services around the country, he was pleased with it.
"When we started off we had absolutely rigid acceptance criteria.
"We had consultant and specialist referrals handled the same way as non-gastrointestinal specialist referrals.
"We had no reliable review process, and we had timeliness issues," Mr Connolly said.
"That has now all been thoroughly addressed, and I think the public can be pleased at the way their clinicians have responded."
Mr Connolly said waiting times "had taken a bit of a hit" due to Covid-19, but urgent referrals were compliant.
"Surveillance is dramatically better and continues to improve, which is fantastic."
The most recent Ministry of Health data for colonoscopy service wait times showed the urgent target of 90% for a patient to be seen within 14 days was hit 85% of the time at Dunedin Hospital and 72% of the time at Southland, but that 100% of all patients there had been seen within 30 days.
In October last year, overall performance of the service had dipped below 80%.
For non-urgent cases (to be seen within 42 days), and surveillance cases (to be seen within 84 days) both hospitals exceeded target or were close to it.
Bowel cancer screening cases are expected to be seen within 45 days (95% target) and both services were achieving in the low 90s.
Mr Connolly said data from the previous year’s cases had been analysed to see if any patients who had been referred for colonoscopy and then declined had later turned up in hospital. None had been found.
"It is very good news that no patients presenting acutely had been declined access to the services ..."
Despite that, a new surveillance step was likely to be introduced — a review group to examine a case if a doctor or the patient raised a concern about the length of their wait to be seen.
"It is early days but the distance the service has come, and its ability to see beyond the immediate concern of massive demand and be able to now work on improving things, is fantastic," Mr Connolly said.
He predicted the advent of Health New Zealand, the new national health body that takes over next month, should benefit southerners through its planned pan-regional approach to providing services.
"We’re not talking about people from Bluff needing to drive to Blenheim to have a scope, but what we are able to look at, particularly for the people of the South, there may be some people for whom it is more convenient to go to Timaru than, say, Dunedin," Mr Connolly said.
"That is all much easier under HNZ."
Health Reporter
