A A

A study has found 39 people with colorectal cancer died between March 2015 and September 2017 while waiting to see a gastroenterologist in Halifax.

The survey was prompted by a shortage of GI specialists who work in the QEII Health Sciences Centre system.

“The demand for GI services at our academic centre has exceeded available resources and only urgent referrals are being seen within recommended time frames,” said the preamble to the study.

“Non-urgent referrals are not being seen. Achieving nationally recommended targets for wait times remains a challenge and this raises concern for potential patient morbidity and mortality while awaiting assessment.”

It’s the first known study that uncovered details surrounding the death of patients on the GI waiting list.

RELATED: EDITORIAL: Long waits imperil lives

Gastroenterologists perform procedures such as endoscopies and laparoscopic surgeries, which are often part of colorectal cancer treatment.

“The average interval time from referral to death was 348 days,” said the study, which was published in the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology’s journal in March 2018, but was just recently brought to The Chronicle Herald’s attention by a Halifax doctor.

“In each triage category, patients waited significantly longer than guideline-proposed wait times.”

The Canadian Association of Gastroenterology Wait Time Consensus Group recommends that patients with symptoms associated with colorectal cancer should have an endoscopic examination within two months.

“As wait times for GI consultations remain well above national recommendations, this review highlights the need for additional resource allocation toward addressing the growing problem of GI wait times in Nova Scotia.”

The cause of death for most people wasn’t related to the reason they were referred to the GI consult in the first place. But six people died as a direct result of colorectcal cancer.

The mean age of the surveyed patients was 70.3 years. The researchers didn’t break down gender results.

According to the Health Department’s wait time information, 90 per cent of people wait almost a year, 329 days, for an endoscopic procedure in Halifax; 268 days for a GI consult for laparoscopic surgery and 492 days for the actual surgery; and 163 days for a gastrointestinal tract surgery consult and 195 days for the procedure.

The study was done by Dr. Stacey Williams, a clinical gastroenterologist in Halifax, and researchers Douglas Motomura and Dr. Tasha Kumai who were students at Dalhousie University at the time of the study.

Williams declined an interview and the other two researchers couldn’t be reached for comment.

Nobody from the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s gastroenterology department was available for an interview Tuesday.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common malignancy and the second most common cause of death from cancer in Canada. Roughly 21,100 patients are diagnosed each year with colon cancer in Canada.