Page 1088 - Week 04 - Thursday, 22 April 2021
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Like so many Canberrans, I was shocked to learn last week of the unfortunate state of the endoscopy waitlist—7,200 people waiting. The Canberra Times broke the news to so many on the waiting list that they may well be patient No 6,998 and will be waiting for years for this important yet fairly quick and straightforward procedure. These are important procedures that we have been encouraging people to take seriously for their own health for years. Worse still, it was revealed that, while over 7,000 people were stuck on the waiting list, at least two have been reported as having developed cancer whilst waiting over a year to be seen. This should not have happened. This is an outrage.
For a government that has been in office for 20 years, you would think it could do a better job. But no. Labor and the Greens have overseen a significant deterioration of our health system. Our public hospitals are operating at full capacity. At times they are overflowing. People are in beds in hospital corridors and ambulances are put on bypass. Wait times for emergency department treatment and elective surgery are some of the longest in the country and have been so for years. Today’s discussion on endoscopy is just the latest sad example of this government’s failures. Endoscopy procedures are an important and preventative measure within our health system, particularly for those with a history of ulcers or polyps. These procedures are vital in the fight against cancer in our community.
What are these procedures and why would people need them? Colonoscopies are often recommended by doctors to assess symptoms of abdominal pain and rectal bleeding and examine for inflammatory bowel disease, such as Crohn’s disease. They are used to examine colon polyps—small growths in the inner lining of the large intestine which can progress into cancer. They are so important for patients with a family history of colon cancer. These procedures are achieved by using a small fibre-optic video instrument, a colonoscope, which gives a far better view than X-rays, achieving more accurate information and results. Just as with gastroscopy or endoscopy, patients having a colonoscopy performed will be given a light anaesthetic which allows them to sleep for the short period of time it takes to complete the procedure. Once the patient is sedated, a small camera is inserted, again, displaying images on a video screen.
Bowel Cancer Australia explains that a colonoscopy is a quick and generally painless procedure that allows for full examination of the entire lining of the bowel. During the procedure the colonoscopist spends most of the time looking for changes to the normal landscape of the bowel lining and removes anything that looks suspicious, like growths called polyps. They are usually harmless, benign. They can be slightly raised, sessile, look like they are on a stalk like a cherry, pedunculated, or they can be flat. Adenomatous polyps, however, can become cancerous, malignant, and, if left undetected—what we are talking about here, while people are languishing on a waiting list—can develop into cancerous tumours.
Polyps can be detected and removed before they develop into bowel cancer during a colonoscopy, and bowel cancer, if present, can be diagnosed. The colonoscopy usually lasts around 30 minutes or less and is typically performed under a general anaesthetic. Colonoscopy is one of the most comprehensive methods to evaluate
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