The Southern District Health Board is still drawing up a plan to fit in about 220 extra Dunedin Hospital colonoscopies without creating lengthy waiting times.
The extra patients were called up after a woman, who had a family history of the disease, presented with bowel cancer. The department, which several years ago tightened up its criteria for surveillance colonoscopy because of strained resources, has expanded its eligibility criteria and has contacted hundreds of patients to see if they still needed one. It started looking at the historic cases last September.
Asked for an update on how this was progressing, surgical medical director Murray Fosbender said in a statement emailed from a spokeswoman that none of the procedures had been carried out yet.
''We are currently developing a plan to accommodate the additional colonoscopy patients and are looking at all options to ensure this group is seen in a timely way, while not affecting existing waiting lists.
''Southern DHB is committed to delivering colonoscopies to patients who have been contacted recently.''
Asked why a patient was told his procedure depended on health board members signing off extra funding for the historic colonoscopies, Mr Fosbender apologised.
''This is an operational matter and would not require escalation to or sign-off by the board. We apologise if patients have been given a different impression.''
Last month, the board said it wanted to clear the backlog by December, using the private sector if necessary.
