Patients now waiting almost five months for these assessments, and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) Southern was planning ongoing mega-clinics to help deal with demand.
This comes as the South is set to outsource the highest amount of urology surgeries in the country as part of a mass outsourcing plan.
HNZ plans to pass an estimated 888 such surgeries a year to the private sector, including 248 in Southern, as reported by the ODT earlier this week.
Waiting times for a first specialist assessment — an ongoing issue for the hospital — have worsened since January.
Figures provided by HNZ Southern yesterday showed there were 383 people waiting a median of 148 days for a first specialist assessment — a 44% time increase compared to January, when there were 395 patients waiting a median of 102.8 days.
Appointment data was broken down into three categories; consultations, cystoscopies and biopsies.
There were 318 patients waiting a median of 160 days for a consultation. An increase from January, when the waiting time was 109 days, and there were 316 people waiting.
Waiting times for cystoscopies had also climbed — there were 45 patients waiting a median of 98 days, compared to 61 patients waiting 78 days.
However the waiting time for a biopsy had improved by just over one week.
The 20 patients listed for a biopsy at present were waiting a median of 69 days, compared to 18 people and 77 days in January.
Recruiting specialists has been an ongoing problem for the hospital, which has not had a fully staffed team of urologists since March 2022.
Southern Group director of operations Hamish Brown said there had been no change in staffing since January.
"Dunedin Hospital has two dedicated and hardworking urologists and a team of specialist nurses that support the service as well as receiving support from Southland urologists, and we continue to have a good working relationship with locums to cover services while we actively recruit 1.8 FTE.
"We are outplacing surgical lists and outpatient clinics at Southern Cross Queenstown and using locums from around New Zealand to cover this for both First Specialist Assessments and treatments."
The hospital was also outsourcing locally to Mercy Hospital, and using locums in Dunedin when they were available.
Since January, four patients had been outsourced to Auckland for surgery, he said.
The hospital was also holding mega-clinics, brief but busy sessions in which urologists from other areas travelled to Dunedin to pitch in.
The hospital held these clinics when faced with high waiting lists in the past.
A mega-clinic was held at the hospital in May, for which 161 appointments had been booked, Mr Brown said.
"We are planning on scheduling these approximately every six months, depending on availability of locums.
"Our urology staff are doing their best to ensure that we provide high-quality care to our patients, and we thank people for being patient and understanding.
"We know recruitment can take time, and we are continuing to actively recruit to this priority service.
"Patients waiting for treatment whose symptoms change should raise this with their general practitioner as soon as possible."
