Monadnock Community Hospital opened its first gastroenterology department last week to help meet the growing local demand for services.

Previously, the hospital only offered these services through partnerships with other facilities in the state, whose providers would come to Monadnock Community Hospital a few times a week to provide this care, according to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Daniel Perli.

But, he said, this proved insufficient for patients.

“While we did have some GI care,” Perli explained, “it was limited, and patients often had to travel to get access.”

Additionally, many people pushed off preventative care like colonoscopies during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, creating a backlog. That — coupled with the aging population of the Monadnock Region and a shortage of gastroenterologists statewide — exacerbated the need for these services locally.

Because of this, the hospital decided to double down on this care by creating a department on-site, located in the same hub as its surgical services unit.

Dr. Michael Gilbert leads the department as its sole physician, alongside a nurse and medical assistant.

Gilbert previously worked as a gastroenterologist with GI Associates of NH, a group of gastroenterologists that offers this care throughout the state to hospitals that need it, such as Monadnock Community Hospital.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with the Monadnock community for the past 10 years,” he said. “I have a history of not just providing GI care, but doing some service line development within the systems that I’ve worked in previously, so it just seemed like a natural progression to help build the service line here.”

Gilbert and Perli noted the hospital is actively recruiting a nurse practitioner or physician assistant to help offset the caseload, but stressed anyone in need of gastroenterology services should not hesitate to call and make an appointment.

“I don’t think patients should worry about not having access,” Perli said.

The department currently offers consultations, colonoscopies, upper endoscopies, small bowel endoscopies, as well as testing for small bowel bacterial overgrowth and H. pylori, a stomach bacteria infection, according to its website.

Gilbert added the hospital is tracking, based on the community’s needs, what specialized services the department can offer moving forward.

In the department’s first week, Gilbert said he saw 80 patients, with “a list of hundreds trying to get in.”

“It’s been wonderful,” he said of his first week. “The community has been incredible, and the team has been absolutely seamless.”

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The department offers consultations, colonoscopies, endoscopies, and testing for small bowel bacteria.