I guess in regard to your friend that while it is painful and quality of life is affected maybe they are busy dealing with all the cancers and they have to prioritize.. But I guess only the authority know if that is the case or not..

Scans have been a very short wait here. Once it was decided a scan was wanted, that is. Specialist referrals are a different matter. Some quick, some not.

My wife had a kidney stone and was in Emerge in December. The doctor treating her, almost in passing, said he thought she may have Cirrhosis. I'm assuming this was something on the scan rather than a symptom based assessment as there weren't any. She seemed in as good health (by her usual standards) as ever.

She was discharged with meds to aid the passing of the stones. No problem there.

There were two referrals, one for Liver and one for Kidney.

The Kidney specialist appointment was arranged a week later for the following week - so within two weeks and another scan immediately followed.

The Liver appointment never happened. Our doc told me later the only way of getting it sped up would be via being in hospital and as, by then, symptoms had developed he arranged a couple of extra tests.

As it happened, two days later she fell and I called 911, so there she was in Emerge and then it was all being looked at urgently. Too late though.

The system just can't handle the volume of patients needing service, the money and doctors and other professionals are not there to provide it, and the ones that are there are overworked and can't handle the number of patients they have to see which is a whole new set of problems.

The whole system needs an overhaul but the government (politicians) have no guts to change it.

Comes down to money, sustainability wise the current system can't be maintained. Cost cutting can be kind of scary sometimes like reducing the amount of time per day paramedics are on duty in some towns, we lost 24/7 coverage, so it can be patchy at night and overnight depending on how far the on calls paramedics are from their rig and then how far you are from their rig.


Luckily for mental health, there are private options, I have given up on the public system, I think 8 or so years of trying and fighting with them is enough, at this point, had I just went to a private place 8 years ago, my life today may have been totally different, its costly and requires a loan to be taken out, but gotta do what you gotta do.

one can but hope that the report issued by the BC Cancer Agency last Tuesday (26th May) will merit some attention from the government(s)

BC cannot be the only place that will experience what is predicted in this report

The report predicted the annual number of cancer cases in the province will increase 57 per cent between now and 2030.

The main reason for the increase was population aging, but also population growth due to immigration was also involved to some extent. The people most at risk of getting cancer are people older than 60.

The number of British Columbians over the age of 70 is expected to increase from one in nine to one in six by 2030.

The Agency did the report to get an idea of what to prepare for as cancer requires so many different parts of the healthcare system to care for patients, and to diagnose it.

That means more screening, more treatment facilities, and more skilled specialists.

They also point out that individuals need to start taking more care of themselves, and lowering their individual cancer risk(s).


That's only 15 years from now .......... it can take 10 to 15 years to plan and build new facilities, and also for specialists to train in their specialities from entering medical school

We priced a colonoscopy in the US, and oddly they are not as pricey as you would think, still pricey, but you can call on Monday and be in on Tuesday. We called as the wait time for my wife is 9 months and its driving her crazy waiting and not knowing.

I used to have pretty good faith in the system here, but the more I used it, the more frustrated and annoyed one can become with the crazy long waits.

Might help if the GP didn't mention Cancer as a possibility, but I would assume if the risk of cancer was there on any scale of being an actual realistic possibility the wait time would not be 9 months?

Wow... We will call this the Lazarus thread

Why does she need a colonoscopy?... Please remind us JS

Some issues around that region of the body that less invasive treatments have not worked and symptoms show no improvement.

The doctors want to take a look to check for possible causes. The possibilities the doctor has given her are:

Inflammatory bowel disease
polyps
Cancer

Doctor beleives the most likely cause it # 1, but wife has major health anxiety so she dwells on the mention of Cancer by the doctor.

Waits are to be expected in a single payer system, but they create major anxiety for people with health anxiety.


The 8 or 9 months is to just see the specialist, no idea what the wait for the procedure if from there.

5 years ago when I had my colonoscopy, wait from GP sending in referral to specialist was 4 months, and then another 3 months to procedure.

They didn't find the cause of my digestive issues (irritable is the assumption) but they did find 2 polyps which came back benign and not an issue.


I did like the fact they had the screen in your line of sight so you can watch along with the doctor, interesting seeing the inside of your body, well part of the inside.

I'm not going to go into great clinical detail but, if she has had a FIT test- checking for microscopic blood in the stool and it was positive then she would get a rapid colonoscopy- example , here, seen surgeon two weeks, scope in about 4. If she had a negative FIT test then likelihood of anything serious is minimal and if they feel they need to scope her then this will be low priority and yes she would need to wait.

If bloods were normal ( IBD can very likely be fairly indirectly accurately diagnosed or ruled out by blood tests) then hopefully she will be reassured. Anxiety isn't a reason to expedite colonoscopies as they need to prioritise dependent on clinical history , labs and examination. No red flag signs or symptoms put this down the priority list. Polyps if present usually bleed as do cancers, even very early ones and so again, if the stool test for blood is negative then she is likely to be in the clear. It isn't quite as clear cut as that but damn nearly.

I would point out that I am not giving you a medical opinion here on your wife, that is down to her doctor, I'm just giving you my general thoughts and advising you of part of the diagnostic process. Now I'm off to bed zzzz

I know she cannot get it faster because of her anxiety, but any system with waits this long is simply broken in my view.

I cannot handle her anxiety, and want to scream.

It's hard having to be counselor to her.

Has she had the fecal occult blood test? I'm currently working on an audit of elective endoscopy wait lists here and I have recommended (as part of my close out).that a new referral form be introduced for medicare funded colonoscopy that includes the patient having had specific tests performed (amongst other criteria) before they ever get as far as being on the public funded list. This would include FOB (I think it's called FIT there) and full bloods workup. There is no need for otherwise healthy individuals who show no signs or symptoms of anything sinister to take up a spot on a waiting list. Unnecessary procedures cost health care dollars and simply push other, more clinically significant patients further down an already long list.

As Stinky says, anxiety is not a reason to have an invasive procedure.

She isn't having the procedure because of anxiety, her anxiety is having to wait 8 months before even seeing a doctor who will hopefully be able to narrow it down to something and explain what the problems could be.

None of the GP's have been able to provide reassurance or a diagnoses.

i have no idea what tests the GP did, but he did about half dozen in total, blood, urine and some fecal but she hasn't been back to the GP to see the results.

I'm Canadian from Vancouver (retired age 79) and spend winters in Bali as my wife was previously from Indonesia.
I had a stomach upset around Xmas and saw a local Bali doctor. As there was no history, nor any other symptoms, he went through the normal tests...full blood tests for markers, blood in the stool, ultra sound, x-ray. Nothing found so put down to irritable bowels and given some indigestion pills. About a month later I had the same pains again so the doctor suggested a colonoscopy.
I went into the hospital the night before to have my intestines cleaned with enema and laxatives....and elected to have the general anesthetic in the morn, due to being a wimp!!!
The colonoscopy revealed a large tumor in my upper colon!

The initial procedure + colonoscopy + anesthetic + night in an executive private room came to around CA$ 580.

I was introduced to the cancer specialist surgeon who convinced me, after he saw a CT scan that I requested, that surgery was required.
I pondered about how to treat the tumor, i.e. go back to Canada and the waiting list or have it done in Bali.
Long story short is I stayed in the hospital and had the surgery a couple of days later, using state of the art surgical harmonic wave instruments. The tumor was malignant and cells were external so a portion of my colon was removed. I asked for the colon back, like they do in a garage repair shop, but he said that a 79 year old colon deserved to be in the museum...where he had donated...

Excluding a neat scar on my belly, and a couple more months of oral chemo, I'm as good as I ever was...and no sign of any cancer cells. I'll have another colonoscopy when I return to Bali next winter.

I'm not insured so paid about CA$ 15,000 for the whole procedure including the initial colonoscopy + a week in an executive room where my wife also had a bed and stayed with me. I'd invested the insurance premiums that I would have had to pay over the last 3 years....so I'm still fiscally ahead.

If it happened in Canada I'd probably still be waiting until Xmas....or need emergency surgery.

Do you mean that literally? What about preparation?

How much, by the way?
I would suggest it's not Canada's system that's broken but where you are.

I've had two, both routine. I can't recall exactly how long but from the time of referral to the actual day was about a month both times.

Dorothy , you hit the nail on the head-
Given your replies sometimes, JS, I sometimes wonder whether what we write actually registers with you, it doesn't sometimes seem to given your replies which then ignore the information given to you by people in the know. So you are raising these points and you don't and neither does your wife know the results?? Seriously???!
The GP shouldn't/ cannot do the referral until she has been in and discussed the results, a colonoscopy cannot really be recommended under those circumstances. The system isn't broken at all, those with genuine concerning symptoms/ findings get dealt with very quickly. It is you who feel that she needs to be dealt with ASAP. I can't help but get the feeling that you are yet comparing the U.S. System which costs a fortune who often examine the "Worried well" with a more rational and directed system which is state funded and targets screening more appropriately rather than the scatter gun approach encountered south of the border. Evidence shows that the way bowel screening in BC and other provinces is done is both cost effective and clinically effective and avoid scoping unnecessarily



I am glad that you came out the other end in good shape. You are it has to be pointed out in a completely different risk group to the person in question, a lot younger and for all we know completely different symptoms. The FIT screening has incredibly high sensitivity and specificity ie very accurate and actually for the most part differentiates between upper GI and lower GI so eliminating the risk of carrying out a colonoscopy on someone who should be having a gastroscopy. We have to risk stratify, you probably with an altered bowel habit at your age would have been scoped irrespective of FIT. JS's wife is young and almost certainly low risk- IE completely different risk levels.
You are incorrect in your comment re how long it would take you, never presume. Altered bowel habit and maybe other symptoms in the elderly population are high risk and scope would be done very rapidly. Thanks for your input though

With all the problems in the healthcare system, doctors could increase efficiency by instead of counting to three when cupping a patient's testicles and asking them to cough, they only counted to two, it would speed up the process by 33%, saving thousands of dollars each year.