People around the country are having to wait months or even years to have crucial surveillance colonoscopies due to staff shortages.
Earlier this week, RNZ spoke to patients in the MidCentral district where regular check up colonoscopies had been put on hold for at least six months.
Following that, some people contacted RNZ and said there were long waits for the procedure in other parts of the country too.
Helen Wilson lives on Auckland's North Shore and had been getting regular colonoscopies for a big chunk of her life.
"I have them every three years. I've been having them since I was 28 because I had pre-cancerous polyps."
She was now nearly 80, and even though she was supposed to get a colonoscopy every three years, it had been five years and three months since she could get an appointment.
"It sort of agitates your mind a wee bit. I'm not so much worried for me because I'm getting old, but it worries me that a lot of other people younger than me are waiting for it. And that it sort of must be getting rationed or else we'd be getting it."
She had not heard anything from the hospital about the delay, she said.
"The least the hospitals could do is just send out a letter and sort of explain what's going on. Because there must be hundreds of people in my situation on the North Shore."
Auckland woman Linda Dumont had been waiting for 210 days to get a colonoscopy, due to a host of gut issues that she said were only getting worse.
"I have massive stomach issues, actually like gut issues. And in addition to that I've actually got a bowel issue and I've got ovarian cysts. So I've got a sh**-load going on down there."
The wait for a colonoscopy left her concerned about her health, Dumont said.
"So for 210 days I've been really concerned and worried that I've potentially got some form of cancer going on internally. You don't want to sit around and wait for those type of things to get worse."
She had been getting letters from Health New Zealand every month apologising for the delay, but she said from now on she would be proactive and demand to know why it was taking so long.
"I'm going to be ringing them saying 'this is not acceptable' I've been left in a state of worry for all of this time."
On Tuesday night, about 60 people attended a public meeting in Palmerston North organised by Patient Voice Aotearoa chairperson Malcolm Mulholland.
Many of the people were among the 850 patients in the MidCentral region who late last year received a letter saying surveillance colonoscopies at the city's hospital were on hold.
Health NZ told Checkpoint it was prioritising people with symptoms, as regular check-up colonoscopies were paused for at least six months.
From Saturday, it would start some weekend sessions - and outsource some procedures to the private system.
Patient Voice Aotearoa chair Malcolm Mulholland said after going public with their concerns about the MidCentral region, they were flooded with responses from people in other areas.
"I'm aware that there are big backlogs when it comes to Invercargill and Rotorua especially. But we've also heard from patients from Hawkes Bay as well as from Auckland and Hamilton."
Getting a regular-check-up colonoscopy was crucial for people at risk of bowel cancer, Mulholland said.
"No-one knows whether or not one has bowel cancer until a colonoscopy is performed... or until it's diagnosed by a professional. The reason why we have surveillance colonoscopies is because these people are already identified as being at high risk of having cancer. I'm one of those patients."
Health New Zealand Northern deputy chief executive Mark Shepherd said in a statement there was a growing demand for colonoscopies, but it made every effort to schedule patients as soon as possible.
Patients were prioritised based on clinical history and risk, Shepherd said, and if patients felt they were not receiving timely care they should reach out directly.
Health New Zealand work hard to provide an efficient and high quality surveillance colonoscopy service, he said.
