A 19-year-old Oak Bay man told he may have a rare and deadly cancer has sued the Vancouver Island Health Authority, claiming he was denied timely access to a diagnostic test.
One week after Roman Cremonese filed his suit in B.C. small claims court July 24, VIHA arranged an appointment for him with Victoria’s head gastroenterologist and Cremonese had his diagnostic test — a colonoscopy — on July 31.
In court documents, Cremonese claims the backlog of patients in Victoria waiting for colonoscopies — where a lighted endoscope searches the bowel for polyps or tumours — is the direct result of “bad planning,” “mismanagement” and “poor forecasting.”
NDP Leader Adrian Dix agrees. In a rush to push a new B.C.-wide program out the door before the election in May, the province neglected to properly implement the program “and now B.C. patients are paying the price,” he said.
“They have bungled the start of a program that is very important.”
Cremonese, a self-employed Oak Bay High graduate, says he visited Royal Jubilee Hospital’s emergency department on May 29 and June 15 with symptoms including blood in his stool, a swollen abdomen and fever.
After a battery of tests, Cremonese was told it was likely he suffered from Crohn’s disease or something similar. However, there was also a possibility he had a carcinoid tumour — “highly curable if detected early but are in almost all cases incurable if not treated in a timely manner,” he said in his claim.
Worse, the gastroenterologist appointment and colonoscopy he needed would take months to schedule.
“I was terrified and I was scared,” Cremonese said.
The base price for a colonoscopy at a private clinic was unaffordable at $1,600 with additional costs, he said. More attempts to secure a timely appointment — within eight weeks — with gastroenterologists for a colonoscopy in Victoria and Vancouver failed.
Believing he had nowhere else to turn, Cremonese filed a suit in small claims court on July 24.
Cremonese sued VIHA and its board of directors for failing “to monitor, evaluate and comply with provincial and regional standards” specified under Health Authorities Act.
He also sued for infringing upon his right to “life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice” as defined under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Days after Cremonese filed his suit, VIHA arranged an appointment for him with Dr. David Pearson, head of the health authority’s division of gastroenterologists.
VIHA filed a response in small claims court on Aug. 2 denying the allegations.
“The defendant says that on or about July 31, 2013, the claimant underwent a colonoscopy procedure performed by Dr. David Pearson. As such, the defendant’s claim is moot.”
Cremonese concedes he will drop the suit now as he got the service he wanted. Cancer has not be ruled out but is now determined to be highly unlikely, he said.
A flood of referrals for colonoscopies — the result of the new provincial colorectal-cancer screening program launched by VIHA in April — has overwhelmed Victoria’s two main hospitals.
VIHA lobbied to kickstart the program, but just months after it began, 10 gastroenterologists at Royal Jubilee and Victoria General hospitals said they were overwhelmed and threatened to stop taking referrals until September.
Newly minted Health Minister Terry Lake told the Times Colonist he wanted the situation resolved before the rest of the province’s screening programs rolled out.
On July 24, VIHA announced it would perform almost 400 more colonoscopies at an additional cost of $187,000 over the next month to reduce — not clear — the backlog.
VIHA is also working at adding additional capacity for screening at both capital region hospitals starting Sept. 9.
“We are confident our plan will address the increased volumes of colonoscopies required,” said spokeswoman Sarah Plank.
