PATIENTS IN urgent need of colonoscopies to determine if they have bowel cancer are still waiting longer than the one-month target waiting time for this diagnostic test at several hospitals.
An audit conducted by the Health Service Executive in mid-October found 297 patients were waiting longer than one month for an urgent colonoscopy at hospitals across the State. This was worse than in June when a similar audit found 208 patients were waiting longer than a month for an urgent colonoscopy.
New target waiting times for colonoscopies were set at the beginning of 2009 after Minister for Health Mary Harney warned the HSE she wanted to see colonoscopies performed within one month of patients being referred.
The consequences of long waiting times for these tests were highlighted by Kilkenny woman Susie Long, whose bowel cancer diagnosis was delayed while she waited seven months for a colonoscopy. She died in October 2007.
The HSE’s audit on October 21st last found 34 per cent of patients referred for colonoscopies were waiting longer than the one-month target.
In its report of the audit the HSE stresses that 18 out of 35 hospitals did not have anyone waiting more than one month for an urgent colonoscopy on that date. However, this means 17 hospitals were not reaching the target.
Among the hospitals not meeting the target are Beaumont, St Vincent’s, the Mater and Connolly Hospitals in Dublin, University College Hospital Galway (UCHG), Letterkenny Hospital, Limerick Regional, Cork University Hospital, Kerry General Hospital, Tullamore and Naas hospitals, St Luke’s in Kilkenny and the Mercy Hospital in Cork.
The report of the audit, just published, says the most notable improvement since the previous audit during the summer had been at Tallaght Hospital.
It said the HSE was dissatisfied with the results overall, and intervened to ensure speedy treatment was arranged for those waiting longer than the target time. It said 165 of the 279 patients had their colonoscopies by November 6th, another 61 were scheduled to be seen during the week ending November 13th, and 58 were unable to or did not attend an appointment which was scheduled for them and were being reviewed.
On November 13th, it said there were still 13 people waiting, seven from Beaumont and six from UCHG. It said all these were due to be seen before the end of this month.
“The HSE will follow up with the hospitals to ensure that these schedules are adhered to and where necessary the procedure will be offered in another public or private facility.”
The report makes no mention of waiting times for routine referrals for colonoscopies which are likely to be much longer.
Kathleen O’Meara, head of advocacy and communications at the Irish Cancer Society, warned that some of the routine referrals could turn out to be cancer. She also said it was disappointing the numbers waiting more than one month for urgent colonoscopies had increased since the summer.