A new Cooktown Multipurpose Health Service endoscopy service will become permanent after a successful trial. Photo: TCHHS.
Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS) has partnered with Indigenous elders and is urging residents over 45 to “choose life” and complete bowel cancer screening tests this year.
Test kits will soon be arriving at residences or post offices for those aged 50-74, while residents aged 45-49 can order tests online for free through the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.
Kits are also available at primary health centres for anyone eligible who has not received their kit in the mail.
The new campaign underway during Bowel Screening Awareness Month in June is: ‘Choose Life. Prevent Bowel Cancer. Do the Test’.
It comes as a new Cooktown Multipurpose Health Service endoscopy service will become permanent after a successful six-month trial.
Cooktown’s Doctor Shane Sadleir will continue to provide the service, alongside other locals.
TCHHS director of medical services eastern Doctor Natasha Coventry said 35 procedures, including colonoscopies and gastroscopies, were completed during the trial, which began in October.
“That is a significant number of patients who did not have to travel to Cairns to undergo these procedures,” she said.
“We know that bowel cancer is the second deadliest cancer in Australia. Those of greatest risk are those living in remote areas, largely due to the difficulty in accessing timely colonoscopies, a procedure that can both prevent bowel cancer, but also diagnose it early, to be able to give treatment options. Bowel cancer can be completely cured if it’s detected early.
“We have the current capacity to do about up to 100 colonoscopies a year but can increase the service if it is needed.
“The big advantage of offering colonoscopies locally is that patients can now complete their bowel preparation at home, and then come into hospital for a couple of hours and return home the same day.
“With colonoscopy being a procedure undertaken under sedation, patients need to be picked up by someone, and that is much easier to facilitate when close to home.
“Currently, if patients need to go to Cairns or elsewhere for a colonoscopy, they must go to a hotel or other accommodation near to the hospital they are having the procedure and then undertake their bowel preparation in that setting.
“I know many of those patients may have not attended their appointment because they did not want to travel to have it done, or couldn’t afford the additional time away from home, so having this service locally will potentially save lives.”
Cooktown resident Robyn Robinson was treated at the new endoscopy service at Cooktown Multipurpose Health Service. Photo: Supplied.
Cooktown resident Robyn Robinson was told she needed a procedure after her screening results and underwent a colonoscopy at the town’s Multipurpose Health Service earlier this year as part of the new service.
“I wanted to hold it off. I thought of the excuses to not go, but then I heard that I could get it done locally here in Cooktown and I booked it in,” she said.
“I wasn’t really stressed this time. I know how hard it is to do your bowel preparation in Cairns and the cost of travel – I didn’t have that stress this time. Yeah, it was great.”
“The community know about it, and they are happy. People want this service and they want it to stay.
“People hold off – they know how hard it is to get to Cairns and how much it costs, so they hold off. They don’t have to anymore.”
TCHHS executive director of medical services Doctor Marlow Coates said there was some shame and apprehension associated with the screening tests, particularly among First Nations communities. He urged residents to get tested regardless.
“See your GP if you have any questions about how to do the test, if you have not received your kit in the mail, or to discuss further including making a yearly health check. Don’t worry, heaps of people are sending in their poos now – it’s really easy to do.”
Original Article published by Luke Mortimer on Region Tropical North Queensland.
