North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has this week called on the Cabinet Secretary for Health to take action to address the pressure facing endoscopy departments across Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
An endoscopy is a procedure where the inside of your body is examined using an instrument called an endoscope. It is often used to detect cancers.
In the Assembly Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood said patients in North Wales are currently waiting over 24 weeks for an endoscopy and expressed concern that the target time for patients newly diagnosed with cancer via the urgent suspected cancer route to start definitive treatment is at significant risk because of the pressures facing endoscopy departments across the North Wales Health Board.
He said:
“Endoscopy services are key to ensuring the early diagnosis and detection of cancers such as bowel cancer, and 104 patients in North Wales needing an endoscopy are waiting over 24 weeks, or 168 days. Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board's latest Board Meeting Paper said that ‘Endoscopy have maximised lists with backfilled and additional weekend capacity’, and a third Endoscopy room in the west, saying that ‘some of the additional capacity is being used to address the backlog of Urgent Suspected Cancer Patients and patients referred by Bowel Screening Wales’.
“But, it also states that although it is expected that the Board will continue to meet its 31-day target, the 62-day target for patients newly diagnosed with cancer via the urgent suspected cancer route to start definitive treatment ‘is at significant risk, particularly due to the pressure on endoscopy across BCU’ (Betsi Cadwaladr).
“What work, therefore, is the Welsh Government doing to ensure that sustainable capacity is built in this area, so that no patient needing an endoscopy is exposed to waiting for longer than the Welsh Government's target waiting times?
Responding, the Cabinet Secretary, Vaughan Gething AM, said: “The National Health Service Wales Executive Board has considered further action on endoscopy services. We're having an action plan to try to understand how we have better capacity in kit and also people, and how we do so properly.”
He also said the Health Committee is looking to have an inquiry on endoscopy services and that he is “happy to come back to answer further questions either at that committee or, indeed, in this place on what we are doing and the effectiveness of the programme of work that we have”.
ENDS