Colonoscopy Services

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:36): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health in relation to colonoscopy services in the Mid North.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: According to the Cancer Council, bowel cancer is 90 per cent curable if found at an early stage. Early detection is particularly important for people with a family history or ageing members of the community. Early detection involves completing a bowel screening test and where a positive result is returned undergoing a colonoscopy.

Jamestown Hospital in the Mid North provides a colonoscopy service for a number of nearby towns. I am advised that currently the waiting list for a colonoscopy in Jamestown is over 12 months and that this delay is related to a lack of funding for additional theatre days. I note that the Auditor-General's latest annual report revealed that, in the last financial year, Country Health SA was the only local health network to experience a reduced level of recurrent funding. I ask the minister:

1. How long should people at risk of developing bowel cancer have to wait for a potentially life-saving colonoscopy?

2. Why are people in the Mid North of our state who have been identified as being at risk of developing cancer, or who have previously had bowel cancer and need to check that it has not returned, having to wait for over a year to undergo a colonoscopy at the Jamestown Hospital?

3. Will the minister ensure that Jamestown Hospital has sufficient funding to provide people in its catchment with colonoscopies within clinically appropriate time frames?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (14:38): Thank you to the honourable member for his thought through question. It is one that I am happy to seek some advice on. I haven't been briefed on the particular issue as yet. Needless to say, I am aware of the fact that bowel cancer is one form of cancer that can readily be beaten, or there is a high success rate of it being beaten through early detection.

In my former capacity as a union leader, I had the opportunity to do some work with the Jodi Lee Foundation, an outstanding foundation that started in South Australia and that has at its heart an objective of seeing higher numbers of Australians take bowel cancer screening tests, which are a relatively cheap and uninvasive exercise to detect people who might be in a higher risk category through blood being detected through a basic test. That leads to earlier detection of bowel cancer. If more people undertake early screening when it comes to bowel cancer, it can go a long way to saving people's lives. That is a foundation that does extraordinary work, and I have learnt a lot about early bowel cancer protection through their advocacy.

I am happy to take that question on notice for the honourable member to try to find out some more about the situation within Jamestown or the Mid North generally. If there are some easy fixes, we are always open-minded to them, and if the honourable member or any member within this place has any particular suggestions about how any particular health issue can be addressed, then my office makes itself available to those suggestions. I thank the honourable member for his question in this particular instance, and we will seek some information as quickly as possible.