Nearly 500 await endoscopies or colonoscopies in Guernsey

Health staff say waiting lists for endoscopies have increased partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic

Nearly 500 people are waiting for an endoscopy or colonoscopy in Guernsey due to a backlog in waiting lists.

The internal examinations use cameras to identify and monitor conditions.

There is no permanent full-time gastroenterologist on the island, with locums currently doing procedures, and patients said they have been affected by a lack of local facilities.

Health bosses said they hoped an off-island provider would start in Guernsey within weeks for the 476 patients.

Fiona Leyman said she left Guernsey because she need more help with her condition

Fiona Leyman was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, which sees parts of the digestive system become inflamed, in 2004.

She said she tried a variety of treatments in Guernsey but had "to leave my home, my island, to seek better treatment because there was nothing else that Guernsey could offer me".

She started to get better "within six to eight months of me moving off-island" to the UK, she added.

Neda Bohrani-Chick, who has had Crohn's disease for 30 years, said she had to wait a year for an endoscopy after the Covid pandemic.

She said the wait "was just not nice - every letter that came through, you hoped that was your appointment".

Neda Bohrani-Chick said she had to wait a year for an endoscopy after the pandemic

As well as helping with diagnoses, the examinations can also help detect any further issues.

The Health and Social Care Committee and the Medical Specialist Group said the waiting list for gastroenterology services was "one area that has been most impacted by Covid-19" and plans had "been put in place to help to reduce the backlog".

Moves to address this included on-island locum gastroenterologist, and a tender commissioning an off-island provider to "deliver endoscopy services over four-day weekends on a regular basis to significantly reduce the waiting list".

It added that the off-island provider was due to be coming to the island in a matter of weeks.

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