Only one of the 33 patients from the recent audit of referrals to Dunedin Hospital's colonoscopy service has sought a meeting with senior management so far.
The offer to meet concerned patients followed the release of the Southern Cancer Network's report on the audit of the referrals almost two weeks ago.
Chief operating officer Vivian Blake said yesterday she and chief medical officer Richard Bunton would have a meeting with the patient.
The board had responded to Health Minister Tony Ryall's call for it to be pro-active about following up the patients by sending letters to doctors.
At this stage, no patients outside the scope of the audit had come forward seeking a meeting.
The audit report did not make a finding on harm to 23 patients later found to have cancer, stating that was outside its scope,It did, however, refer to "prolonged delays" and the possibility that treatment for six rectal cancer patients could result in "poorer outcomes".
The time from referral to treatment for all of the 23 cancer patients ranged from 36 days to more than two years.
Five of them were found to have secondary cancers, but other than that mention, there was no information about the stage of cancers diagnosed in the others.
The report also did not state whether some of the patients, referred between 2004 and 2009, have since died.
The audit followed concerns from some general practitioners about access to colonoscopies for some patients who they said were being denied colonoscopies when they had all the accepted symptoms of bowel cancer.
The audit revealed that Otago had the lowest rate of publicly funded colonoscopies in the country.
