SDHB has 6-week wait for urgent colonoscopy

Southern District Health Board patients were waiting six weeks for an urgent colonoscopy at the end of May, data released under the Official Information Act shows.

Figures from the country's district health boards, released this week by Labour health spokeswoman Annette King, reveal large waiting time variations.

Patients at more than half the country's DHBs waited a fortnight or less for an urgent procedure.

At one board, Bay of Plenty, an urgent colonoscopy was carried out at the ''next available session''. However, at Southern, patients waited four to five months for a semi-urgent colonoscopy, and 11 months for a routine procedure.

Retired gastroenterologist Emeritus Prof Gil Barbezat said yesterday a great effort was being made to reduce the wait time for urgent procedures, and it was even likely to have improved in recent weeks. The Dunedin unit and its staff could not be pushed much more to increase procedures, colonoscopies having increased to 1100 a year from 700, he said.

Prof Barbezat is spearheading an effort to pressure the health board to urgently upgrade Dunedin Hospital's inadequate gastroenterology facility.

Last month the report he co-wrote with a group of prominent former and current clinicians criticised an 18-year delay upgrading it. The report is being reviewed by the Ministry of Health, at the request of Health Minister Tony Ryall.

SDHB surgical medical director Murray Fosbender, in a statement yesterday, said waiting times had improved significantly in the past six months, and would continue to improve.

The statement did not specifically address whether the urgent wait time had improved since the end of May.

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