Health delay shuts dealership

A Hawke’s Bay car dealer has had to close his business and retire after delays for a colonoscopy led to an unidentified cancer in his bowel evolving to stage three.

Steve McKinnon and his wife, Lynette, were directors of Beresford Auto Sales in Heretaunga St, Hastings, and ran the company for seven years before shutting it down in April.

It comes after the 75-year-old waited 14 months for a colonoscopy despite first seeking treatment for persistent diarrhoea in early 2024, reports the Hawke’s Bay Today.

Health New Zealand acknowledges McKinnon, pictured above, was prioritised as semi-urgent and the procedure should have happened within 42 days. 

It is now reviewing its systems and processes to find out why, in this case, it took more than a year.

McKinnon’s health had deteriorated significantly by the time of his diagnosis of stage three bowel cancer in March and he was forced to close Beresford Auto Sales.

“We could have carried on with the business if I had been diagnosed earlier,” McKinnon told Hawke’s Bay Today. “But when we found it, the damage was already huge.”

Lynette explains the effects of the cancer meant her husband could not physically go to work and she was unable to run the business on her own.

The couple are now financially relying only on McKinnon’s pension and have sought support from Work and Income.