Endoscopy

1.90 Endoscopy undertakes a procedure to look inside the body, examining hollow organs or cavities in patients over 16. Currently, endoscopy services are provided at Bronglais, Glangwili, Prince Philip, and Withybush. 

1.91 The main issue affecting the Health Board’s endoscopy service is increasing demand and difficulties in hiring enough endoscopy staff to deliver the service across multiple sites. If it does not increase activity, waiting lists for patients will get longer.  

1.92 Hywel Dda outlined three different options for how endoscopy services could be delivered. In all proposed options, some endoscopy procedures would continue to be delivered across the four main hospital sites. The options consider increasing activity in different ways, described in Table 4. 

Table 4: Consultation options – endoscopy