Up to 300 urology patients will be seen each day in weekend ''mega clinics'' at Dunedin Hospital.
Ten extra urologists and 10 specialist nurses from around the country will help Southern District Health Board staff with the clinics on November 18 and 19, and December 9 and 10.
The Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand and Urology Associates in Christchurch helped organise the clinics and extra staff.
The Southern DHB announced the move yesterday as it deals with a crisis that meant some men suffered potentially life-threatening delays for prostate cancer care.
''It is expected these will enable 200 to 300 appointments per day, including first specialist assessments, diagnostic procedures and potentially some surgeries,'' the DHB said in a statement.
SDHB urology clinical lead Al Hepburn said the extra sessions were ''a short-term solution that is needed to see and treat patients who have waited too long''.
''This will allow us to concentrate on the urgent implementation of a long-term plan to ensure a future system that will not let this happen again,'' he said.
The clinics are expected to clear the backlog of patients waiting in urology.
Last week, chief executive Chris Fleming said 569 urology patients were ''currently outside expected wait times'' for a procedure or assessment.
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Comments
Does anyone seriously believe that giving all these people a single appointment will resolve their problems? Terrific, you catch up on the backlog of initial consultations, but you now have a backlog of 2nd visits. This is just knee jerk very short term panicking.
Are they still looking for another part time urologist? That person is going to be pretty busy in their 20 hours a week getting through the 569 2nd consultations.