Five-year wait see some SA public hospital specialists – but there’s a way to cut the queue

Some people are waiting up to five years to see public hospital specialists – and then face another delay for elective surgery. But there are ways to cut the queues. See the table.

Patients are waiting up to five years to see some public hospital specialists for routine or non-urgent appointments – then face going on a separate waiting list if they need elective surgery.

Analysis of SA Health data by The Advertiser shows ear, nose and throat, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics and urology among specialties with the longest maximum waiting times for an appointment with a public hospital specialist.

Seaview Downs grandfather Graham Wilson received a positive result from a National Bowel Screening Program test in February and waited more than five months to see a specialist after his paperwork got lost in the system.

He finally saw Flinders Medical Centre specialist this week after the Opposition raised his case publicly — and is now on another wait list for a colonoscopy.

There are ways to dramatically dodge the queues.

The most simple is to go private if you can afford it, paying for the appointment with a private specialist if you do not have private health insurance.

The other way is to see which hospitals have the shortest queues. However, this hinges on hospitals accepting patients from outside their area who are referred by a GP.

Wait times in months for each speciality area

Note: Numbers refer to months waiting for an appointment, for routine and non-urgent cases.

Wait times can vary considerably between hospitals – for example there is a eight-month maximum wait for a gastroenterology appointment at the Royal Adelaide Hospital but 58 months at FMC and 57 months at Lyell McEwin.

The maximum wait for an ophthalmology appointment at the RAH is 23 months, compared with 60 at FMC; for rheumatology it is four months at RAH, 51 months at FMC.

The latest report shows as at March 31 there many specialties with little or no wait but 25 clinics at various hospitals where the wait time was more than 50 months.

This was led by 63 months for an ear, nose and throat appointment at Lyell McEwin Hospital and 60 months for an ophthalmology consultation at FMC.

In the previous quarter, several clinics had wait times in the 80-gracel or even 90-month bracket.

Even this is a vast improvement on 2018 when wait times for some appointments were longer than 16 years.

The latest data shows 56 speciality outpatient services at metropolitan hospitals reduced overall maximum waiting times by up to 33 months, compared with the previous quarter.

The RAH’s ophthalmology service showed the greatest improvement with maximum waiting times falling from 56 months to 23 months.

SA Health chief medical officer Dr Michael Cusack said hospitals were working hard to reduce outpatient waiting times to ensure all South Australians can access the healthcare they need within appropriate time frames.

Hospitals are auditing their outpatient speciality services to ensure they accurately reflect people still waiting for an appointment.

Dr Cusack said work is continuing with specialist clinicians and GPs on protocols for specific conditions which will reduce waiting lists by ensuing patients are ready for care on their first appointment.

Vicky Mercurio, 45, at home in Magill. She’s been waiting years to see a public hospital specialist for sinus treatment. Picture: Emma Brasier

Sufferer told it would be ‘minimum 50-month wait’ for specialist

Vicky Mercurio is one of thousands of South Australians lost in the limbo of waiting for an appointment to see a public hospital specialist.

She has been waiting almost three years to see an ear, nose and throat specialist at Modbury Hospital to see if anything can be done to help her constantly blocked sinus passages.

Dr James Katsaros with the reconstructive surgery booking wait list that allegedly did not exist, according to the former Labor state government.

When she recently rang to see how it was progressing she was told “it was a minimum 50 month wait.”

Once Ms Mercurio is actually seen by a specialist, if she qualifies for elective surgery she will then go on another waiting list for the procedure and faces many more months of waiting.

At present there are almost 19,000 people on the statewide elective surgery waiting list regarded as “ready for surgery at the first opportunity.”

This includes almost 2600 people who are overdue for surgery. At Modbury Hospital there are more than 279 people ready for ENT elective surgery including 67 listed as overdue.

Ms Mercurio, 45, of Magill, said she initially went to see a private specialist for a consultation and was told it would cost up to $9000 for the surgery to be done privately.

“I would have to take that money out of my superannuation which I really do not want to do so am relying on the public health system,” Ms Mercurio said.

“However, they have told me my condition is only semi-urgent so they won’t escalate it.

“This is not nice to live with. My sinuses are constantly blocked.

“I just don’t think it is acceptable for the public health system to have waiting times stretching into years for people like me just to get an appointment, let alone get the problem fixed.”

The waiting list that didn’t exist

When the Sunday Mail first revealed the existence of a “hidden” list of people waiting years for an outpatient specialist appointment back in 2009, then-Labor health minister John Hill responded by saying: “You just cannot believe everything that’s in the newspaper.”

He also claimed: “Keeping a tally of people referred for an outpatient appointment would be a hugely costly and time-consuming administrative exercise.”

So, the Sunday Mail had Dr James Katsaros, Royal Adelaide Hospital’s then-director of plastic and reconstructive surgery — at the touch of a computer button — print out the list of people waiting for an appointment for just one speciality, at just one hospital.

It included people who had been waiting for more than a decade. The paper trail was so long that Dr Katsaros had to stand on a chair to fully display it.

SA Health has published the information since 2018, fulfilling an election pledge by the then-Liberal government and continued by Labor.