Kirsty Lewis, of Dunedin, was rung by the Dunedin Hospital radiology department yesterday morning after her story appeared on the front page of the Otago
Daily Times.
Ms Lewis had faced a 23-week wait for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
She was considering paying to have the scan done privately because she had had cancer previously, and felt her life could be at risk.
Yesterday, the department contacted Ms Lewis with an appointment date of July 20.
"[The SDHB staff member] said I shouldn’t have received that letter, and seemed to be making it out to be a clerical error," Ms Lewis said.
A Southern District Health Board spokeswoman said the board could not comment on individual cases.
The ODT also asked for a general response about waiting times in radiology.
The board said it could not respond yesterday, but it would next week.
The ODT was contacted by two other patients yesterday who were experiencing long wait times in radiology.
The story garnered a big response on the ODT’s Facebook page.
Some people were unhappy it appeared to take a newspaper article for Ms Lewis to receive the scan in a timely fashion.
