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However, he is concerned about wait times for surveillance screening for patients who had possible indications of bowel cancer and needed to be checked regularly. While not a dramatic increase there had been an increase in waiting times for people who in the past had indication of possible bowel cancer but who are had shown up negative but who needed to be kept under surveillance. “. and delays in getting that testing done has been at a level that’s not acceptable. There is work under way to improve that. But in terms of the other measures for those services, the Southern DHB is more or less meeting the target times and the target volumes expected for that population,” Little said.
Notably, the 386 patients overdue for surveillances colonoscopies at Southland Hospital in November 2020 had dropped to 186 in February 2021 while the 47 patients waiting longer than 90 days for a non-urgent colonoscopy had reduced to one. These wait times are based on Ministry of Health advice and vary, depending on the urgency of a patient’s condition. Connolly said the board hoped to have reduced its surveillance colonoscopy wait list to zero by September 2021. In the interim, patients were being offered colonoscopies in Dunedin, he said.
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The Southern District Health Board’s colonoscopy service delivery has been a contentious issue in Southland for many years, leading the board to publicly apologise for its failures in 2020.
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Paul Cosgrove believes he could have been treated if his bowel cancer was detected earlier. He doesn t want anyone else to struggle to access a colonoscopy.
The Southern District Health Board has publicly apologised for its colonoscopy service delivery failures and committed to fixing it, but patients say they want to know how things will change. Wanaka grandfather Paul Cosgrove has made peace with the fact that he’s living on borrowed time He knows that if his bowel cancer had been detected earlier, it could have been treated. Cosgrove feels let down by the Southern District Health Board.