Health New Zealand has apologised to Southland urology patients whose messages went unanswered, after three men described to RNZ the toll of a service that has no permanent full-time specialist.

The agency said a fault in the urology department's phone system earlier this year meant some voicemails were never received or returned, and that the department has since been moved to a different system. The admission came in response to an RNZ investigation published on Tuesday morning.

The case at the centre of it is an 82-year-old Southland man, identified only as David at his request, who has lived for about 700 days with a catheter that was supposed to be a short-term measure while waiting for surgery on an enlarged prostate. He told RNZ the catheter blocks painfully more than once a month, sending him to hospital or requiring help at home, and that his emails and calls to Southland Hospital went nowhere. In September the hospital told his daughter he had been placed on Christchurch Hospital's surgical list, but eight days later a continence nurse said she knew nothing of any transfer. He said he was told he would probably have the catheter for life.

A second patient, John, was diagnosed in March with aggressive prostate cancer that had already spread to the wall of his rectum. RNZ reported that specialists in April classed him as an urgent priority needing a procedure within six to eight weeks to clear the way for radiation treatment. The operation did not happen until September, when a Christchurch urologist carried it out, and seven months after diagnosis he was still waiting to begin radiation. He had let his private health insurance lapse shortly before the diagnosis.

The third, Peter Brotherston, 90, of Invercargill, has made four trips to Christchurch in a year for complications dating back to prostate surgery in 2007. An artificial sphincter fitted in 2018 had to be removed in late 2023 after it eroded his skin and caused infection, and a suprapubic catheter inserted in April also failed. He changes three or four pads a day and is waiting for a further Christchurch operation. ACC is funding his care through private hospitals and reimbursing travel, but his daughter told RNZ that watching his days taken over by hospital trips and medical care was heartbreaking.

The Herald reported last month that two Southland urologists resigned earlier this year, prompting internal Health NZ warnings about patient harm and the possible collapse of the service. Those briefings also recorded that cancer patients were among those whose surgery had been delayed or cancelled. The Prostate Cancer Foundation and the senior doctors' union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, both put the blame partly on weak retention and succession planning.

Health NZ would not give RNZ an interview, but said in a statement that the three men's concerns were being taken seriously. Craig Ashton, its Southern group director of operations, said three permanent part-time urologists based in Dunedin were supporting Southland patients, recruitment was continuing, and the agency was using locums, other South Island teams and private providers where appropriate. He said the agency understood how important timely care was and that delays could be distressing, and that it would engage directly with the patients and their families.

It did not say when any of the three men would be treated, or explain the length of David's and John's waits.

The Herald has asked Health NZ how many Southland urology patients are currently waiting longer than the recommended time, and whether any other messages were lost during the phone fault.