SA Health apologises for making man wait at RAH five days for emergency cheekbone surgery

SA HEALTH has apologised to a Mount Gambier man forced to wait five days for emergency surgery at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, saying there had been a significant delay in surgery waiting periods.

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SA Health has been forced to apologise to a Mount Gambier man who was forced to wait five days for emergency facial surgery after an increase in the demand for surgery created extensive delays.

An SA Health spokeswoman said that the state’s health body has apologised to Brendon Bytheway, 28, for the extensive delay which only ended on Tuesday evening when he was finally taken into surgery.

On Wednesday afternoon an SA Health spokeswoman said there had been a significant increase in demand for surgery over the past week, creating delays for patients.

“In the past week, the Royal Adelaide Hospital has experienced a significant increase in demand for emergency surgery,” the spokeswoman said.

“All patients placed on the emergency surgery list are assessed and prioritised to be seen based on their urgency as advised by clinical staff.

“For this specific case, a number of people that required urgent surgery including emergency neurosurgery and emergency abdominal surgery were required to be seen first.

“Where surgeries are postponed, our dedicated staff strive to ensure patients are comfortable and are re-booked at the earliest possible time. We have apologised to the patient regarding this specific case about the delay.”

After waking from surgery Mr Bytheway said the operation was a success and that he wasn’t feeling “too bad”.

Mr Bytheway, 28, had to negotiate the health care system in Mount Gambier for more than a week before he had his injured cheekbone referred to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Brendon Bytheway, who was forced to wait five days for emergency surgery without explanation. Picture: Calum Robertson

After being punched in the head he attended the dentist but was told he would have to wait a week for an x-ray to be taken.

Mount Gambier Hospital referred him to the Royal Adelaide Hospital which was more than 400kms away from home.

He was told that he would be rushed in for surgery on Thursday but did not go under the knife until Tuesday evening, after he had lodged a complaint with the hospital.

Mr Bytheway told The Advertiser he had lodged the complaint on Monday after he was told he would not have into surgery for yet another day.

He was told that a member of staff would come and see him within a few minutes but no one came.

Since Thursday Mr Bytheway fasted in preparation for surgery, losing more than 4kgs as the waiting continued.

Mr Bytheway said the nursing staff had been fantastic, trying to find out what the delay was.

“I cannot stress enough that all the nursing staff from this ward have been great and very apologetic,” Mr Bytheway said.

“They cannot understand why this has taken so long.”

After telling hospital staff he was contacting The Advertiser to tell his story, Mr Bytheway was finally taken into surgery three hours later.

However, he said he was still frustrated that the RAH was unable to explain the long wait.

Mr Bytheway will return to Mt Gambier Wednesday night.