Endoscopy expansion key to meet demand

Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services Steven Miles will this morning inspect progress on Townsville Hospital’s new $5.9 million endoscopy unit.

The unit includes two new procedure rooms which will help The Townsville Hospital meet a huge surge in demand for the endoscopy procedures.

In 2018-2019, 4348 North Queenslanders required an endoscopic procedure with that number set to increase by 1500 in 2019-2020.

Minister Miles said the new ward, which would open next month, would not only meet this year’s anticipated 35 per cent increase in demand but cater for long-term growth.

“This is a perfect example of supporting health service delivery not just for right now but into the future,” he said.

“The State Government has supported this expansion that will deliver essential care to close to 6000 North Queenslanders this financial year.

“More than that we’ve future-proofed this unit to support the health service in meeting further demand for services that we know is coming.”

Townsville Hospital and Health Service Board Chair Tony Mooney said the project had doubled the size and capacity for endoscopy services in North Queensland.

Mr Mooney said the huge increase in demand is being driven largely by the introduction of the Commonwealth Government’s National Bowel Screening program which has introduced biennial screening for Australians aged over 50.

“We’ve gone from two procedure rooms to four which will create significant extra capacity for our clinicians to undertake endoscopies and colonoscopies,” he said.

“This additional demand will be able to be managed with three of the procedure rooms with the fourth room in reserve to meet future demand.

“It was critical we had this extra capacity to meet this extra demand and it has been invaluable having the State Government’s support to fund this essential expansion.”

Townsville Hospital and Health Service A/Medical Services Group director Aniko Cooper said the unit would also be innovative in harnessing the ability of nursing staff.

Ms Cooper said nurse practitioners Kylie Ashley and Grace Magnani had completed masters level post-graduate training to perform colonoscopy procedures.

“About two-thirds of this new demand will be met by two senior nurses who have done advanced training to become nurse practitioners,” Aniko said.

“Grace and Kylie are senior and experienced nurses and the intensive training they have been through will put the Townsville HHS in good stead to continue to deliver world-class endoscopy services to our community.”

Mr Mooney said the unit would begin seeing patients next month.

Endoscopists perform colonoscopy, which is an examination of the inner lining of the bowel using a colonoscope to evaluate abnormalities such as cancer, bleeding, polyps and adenomas.