{"id":953606,"date":"2026-11-05T14:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T14:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/953606\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T14:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T14:24:22","slug":"demand-for-urgent-colonoscopy-procedures-outpace-public-health-capacity-as-waitlist-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/953606\/","title":{"rendered":"Demand for urgent colonoscopy procedures outpace public health capacity as waitlist grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg Twigger has been waiting three months for a colonoscopy, despite being considered an urgent case.<\/p>\n

The 69-year-old has been happily living in Hobart for eight years, but recently he’s considered leaving the state to get a timely medical procedure.<\/p>\n

He returned a positive test from a routine bowel screening kit in August, and the wait for results has left him worried and out of options.<\/p>\n

“I’m sick and tired,” Mr Twigger said.<\/p>\n

“I’m on the pension, but I can’t wait.”\"Greg<\/p>\n

Greg Twigger, 69, has been waiting three months for a colonoscopy, despite being considered an urgent case. (ABC News: Jake Grant)<\/p>\n

A positive screening test means blood was detected, but it does not determine that a person has bowel cancer, or other health conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.<\/p>\n

For Mr Twigger, the result places him as a category 1 patient for a type of endoscopy called a colonoscopy \u2014 a day procedure using an internal scope to diagnose the cause of the bleeding \u2014 which is clinically recommended to be performed within 30 days.<\/p>\n

After consulting with his doctor, Mr Twigger is considering paying out-of-pocket for private medical care.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been told 120 days is a very, very common wait time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This problem isn’t going away until I cough up the thousands of dollars to get a private assessment.”Increased demand outstrips health response<\/p>\n

While waitlists and the percentage of patients seen within clinically recommended wait times for elective surgeries in Tasmania are made publicly available, statistics for endoscopies are not.<\/p>\n

‘A bunch of platitudes’: Colonoscopy waitlist leaves man in limbo<\/a><\/p>\n

Tony returned a positive result from a bowel cancer screening kit in June. Almost three months later, he is still waiting for an endoscopy to find out if he has cancer.<\/p>\n

The ABC requested the most recent data from the Tasmanian Health Department in mid-September.<\/p>\n

The new data, which was provided to the ABC on Tuesday, shows the number of patients on the category 1 endoscopy list has grown from 2,878 in July 2024 to 3,864 in June this year.<\/p>\n

The number of category 1 procedures being performed within that 30-day window has not kept up with the demand.<\/p>\n

In July 2024, 27 per cent of the most urgent category of endoscopy procedures were completed within 30 days.<\/p>\n

In June this year, just over 15 per cent of category 1 endoscopies were performed within the clinically recommended timeframe.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, state Health Minister Bridget Archer announced a $40 million investment over three years to improve endoscopy services across the state.<\/p>\n

\"Bridget<\/p>\n

Bridget Archer says the three-year investment would deliver 9,000 endoscopies. (ABC News: Jonny McNee)<\/p>\n

Ms Archer said the investment would deliver 9,000 endoscopies, with an immediate focus on the most urgent presentations and a goal of clearing the category 1 waitlist by the end of June 2028.<\/p>\n

“That will be achieved by a range of things, possibly some additional Saturday lists as well as some opportunities for outsourcing as well,” Ms Archer said.Funding labelled as ‘bandaid’ fix<\/p>\n

The health minister said the increase in demand for endoscopy services could be partially attributed to the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, a federal initiative that sends free bowel cancer screening kits to Australians aged between 50 and 74.<\/p>\n

“It hasn’t come with any additional resources to states to respond to the outcomes of that,” Ms Archer said of the program.<\/p>\n

Tasmanian Labor MP Sarah Lovell said while the funding announcement would be welcomed by those waiting for a procedure, it amounted to a “bandaid fix” that she did not believe would clear category 1 wait lists.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Sarah Lovell is sceptical that the funding would deliver the intended outcomes. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

She also questioned how the funding would address waiting times.<\/p>\n

“This is an announcement that they have made because we had somebody speak out really bravely about their situation just a couple of months ago,” Ms Lovell said.<\/p>\n

Mr Twigger said the government’s investment had not reduced the significant emotional distress he has experienced as he continues to try to secure a procedure.<\/p>\n

“I saw my GP this morning, and they said, ‘we’re going to send that request through again. This happens all the time’,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s category 1. Well, if that’s the rating that I got, then God help the people in category 2 and 3.”<\/p>\n

Tas stories you may have missed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greg Twigger has been waiting three months for a colonoscopy, despite being considered an urgent case. The 69-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[58130,521288,64,63,60346,10950,521289,25818,519716,50559,2494,137,2889,5560,500,506175,451385,47388,8539,12806,2801,53135,43770],"class_list":["post-953606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-urgent","tag-40-million","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bowel-cancer","tag-bridget-archer","tag-category-1","tag-colonoscopy","tag-endoscopies","tag-endoscopy","tag-funding","tag-health","tag-health-minister","tag-health-policy","tag-healthcare","tag-hobart-news","tag-increased-capacity","tag-royal-hobart-hospital","tag-tas","tag-tas-news","tag-tasmania","tag-tasmanian-government","tag-waitlist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}