Media Statement In Response To Release Today Of Bissett-Broome Report By SDHB

Since 2017, five reviews have found serious problems with the colonoscopy service and management of bowel cancer by the Southern District Health Board (SDHB). Our Bagshaw-Ding report, delivered eighteen months ago, detailed all the problems and gave constructive solutions for every one of them. Some people in senior governance, management and clinical leadership positions failed to take responsibility or follow all our recommendations; as a result patients continued to suffer unacceptable outcomes from their bowel cancers. Some recent tragic stories have emerged.

This is not only an appalling disgrace for SDHB; it is a similar national disgrace. The Ministry of Health should have intervened a long time ago. The relevant senior SDHB people must now be dismissed from their positions and leave. I call upon the Minister of Health to act immediately in the interests of the patients and public of the SDHB region.

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