PUBLIC PATIENTS on lengthy waiting lists for bowel cancer tests are borrowing large sums so they can be seen quickly in the private sector, a cancer specialist has said.
Dr Kevin Ward, a consultant gastroenterologist at Waterford Regional Hospital, said some patients who feared spending months on a waiting list for a colonoscopy were taking out loans to be seen faster.
"We have had three or four people getting loans . . . when my secretary phoned a patient said to be in need of an urgent colonoscopy to offer her a cancellation appointment that patient was already in a credit union," he said.
Some people, he added, whose cases were not urgent, were also taking out loans.
Concern about waiting times for colonoscopies among the public has been heightened since details of Susie Long's case came to public attention last year. The Kilkenny woman waited seven months for a colonoscopy to diagnose her bowel cancer. By the time her cancer was diagnosed it had spread. She died last October.
Dr Ward said he had been highlighting the increase in waiting times for colonoscopies for several years but the situation had got worse and was now "hopeless".
He also said the number of requests he receives for colonscopies from family doctors has increased dramatically in the last year since Ms Long's case. "Waiting times, which were already unacceptable, are now almost interminable," he said.
Furthermore he said many GPs were now classifying their referrals as "urgent" simply because of the long waiting times.
His comments follow the recent publication by The Irish Times of waiting times for colonoscopies at public hospitals across the State. They showed patients could be waiting up to 18 months for the diagnostic test in Portlaoise General Hospital, up to 12 months at Tullamore General Hospital or University College Hospital Galway, and up nine months at Limerick Regional Hospital or Kerry General Hospital.
Responding, Health Minister Mary Harney said these waiting times were unacceptable.
While the HSE has claimed urgent referrals are always seen within weeks Dr Ward pointed out that only a minority of such cases would be seen within weeks and this would only happen where a GP contacts a consultant directly.
He added that while in most cases where colonoscopies were performed colon/bowel cancer was not detected it was very frustrating to have to tell patients there were 500 people already on the waiting list. "It's a capacity issue and I just don't see any light at the end of the tunnel unfortunately," he said.
The HSE has said its hospitals will work with the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to reduce waiting times but Dr Ward points out that his hospital's "quota" of referrals to the NTPF has been used up and there will be no referrals for the foreseeable future, so his waiting list is destined to continue growing.
Health insurance industry sources have said a public patient who wants to be seen faster privately would probably pay about €4,300 for a colonoscopy.