Australian hospital waiting lists soar with some patients waiting five years

Hundreds of thousands of Aussies are waiting for surgery – some for up to five years – as the country’s crippled hospital waiting lists hit crisis levels.

Australians are waiting up to five years for life-altering operations as Covid surgery bans, funding shortfalls and massive workforce shortages push public hospital waiting lists to crisis levels.

And even private hospitals are limited in helping out – performing 500,000 fewer surgeries in the past two years because of staff shortages and illness.

Doctors are calling for a national summit to plan a military scale surgery blitz marshalling surgeons and operating theatres in every state to clear the backlog.

But Australian Medical Association chief Professor Steve Robson – who proposed the idea – admits it’s unlikely to work because doctors and nurses burned out after working double shifts and through their holidays for more than two years are quitting in droves or only working part-time.

“Staff have been so smashed, so broken by what has happened to them over the course of the pandemic,” Prof Robson said.

“At the moment it’s difficult for the operating theatre to even put a roster together, “ he said.

more than a third of urgent patients who needed treatment within 30 days waited longer.

Around the country another 250,000 patients were on a “hidden waiting list” to see a surgeon before they could be put on a public hospital waiting list., with some patients waiting more than 2400 days for these types of outpatient appointments.

An AMA report found a patient in Victoria will wait more than 900 days for an urgent neurosurgery outpatient appointment – against a target of 30 days.

In Queensland, a patient will wait more than 150 days for an urgent gastroenterology or rheumatology outpatient appointment (target 30 days).

For non-urgent outpatient appointments (target 365 days) in Queensland and Victoria, most specialities are not meeting the target. Waiting times for ophthalmology, orthopaedic, and plastic/reconstructive appointments are all more than 700 days in both states.  

The average waiting time in Tasmania was 101.2 days for urgent patients (target 30 days). In August in that state’s Southern region the wait was 2440 days for a non-urgent neurosurgery outpatient appointment and over 800 days for an urgent neurosurgery appointment.

NSW does not publish data on its outpatient waiting times.

Professor Steve Robson.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data shows surgeries with the longest wait times in 2020-21 include knee replacement where 31.7 per cent of patients waited over a year for their operation, tonsillectomies where 23.1 per cent of patients waited for over a year, hip replacements where 20.6 per cent of patients waited for over a year and cataract removal where 14.5 per cent of patients waited for over a year.

“The surgical waiting lists are at biblical proportions and it’s an economic catastrophe,” Prof Robson said.

“If you have an eye problem and you’re waiting for a cataract operation or if you can’t move your shoulder it means you can’t work, you can’t see, you can’t drive so it’s like a massive lead weight right across the chest of the Australian economy,” he said.

One in three patients needing a knee replacement had been waiting more than a year and in some hospitals half the patients had waited more than 684 days for this procedure.

Excessive wait times for cataract surgery is seeing half of all patients wait longer than clinically recommended and there are huge wait times for tonsillectomies.

5-YEAR WAIT FOR GRANDFATHER WHO ‘FELL THROUGH THE CRACKS’

Great grandfather Malcolm Viegel has been waiting five years for shoulder replacement surgery and now needs a 24 hour morphine patch to control his pain

The 72-year- old was told earlier this year he had “fallen off’ the waiting list at the Mater Hospital when they failed to initially treat him within the clinically recommended 365 days in 2018.

“No-one ever told me,” Mr Viegel said.

“They said I fell through the cracks”.

The former amateur football player and “jack of all trades” has such severe arthritis and injuries from playing football he can’t open cans, use shaving cream or fly spray or cut up his food.

75 year old Malcolm Veigel at home in Corinda. He has been on the waiting list for over five years for shoulder surgery and living in constant pain. Picture Lachie Millard

He said the pain at times is so crippling it leaves him in tears.

After he went back to his doctor earlier this year and had further X-rays and an ultrasound, he was put back on the waiting lists at The Mater and was told he now had to wait up to a further 365 days for surgery.

“I went straight to my local member,” he said.

After his state MP Jess Pugh took up his case Mr Viegel was finally given a surgery date for November 4.

A Mater spokesperson said when Mr Viegel he was first seen by the hospital in 2017 patient consent forms were completed for the two Category 3 shoulder operations he required.

“It was noted that the consent form for the left shoulder procedure should be deactivated and rebooked once the procedure on the right shoulder had been completed – in line with elective surgery guidelines,” the spokesperson said.

“Unfortunately, the consent forms for both procedures were deleted when processed by the hospital’s booking office,” the hospital said.

“This was a case of human error for which Mater accepts responsibility and which we deeply regret,” the hospital spokesperson said.

“Our aim is always to provide exceptional, compassionate care for all our patients and we accept that in this instance we failed.”

Further training about this issue has been provided to relevant employees and the patient’s wait-time has been backdated to 2017.

“We apologise to Mr Veigel for our error and the impact it has had on,” the spokesperson said.

PRIVATE HOSPITALS ALSO FEELING THE PINCH

In an attempt to beat public hospital waiting lists 235,699 extra people took out private health insurance in the year to June so they could have surgery in the private sector.

But News Corp can reveal it is not just public hospitals that are under pressure.

The pandemic saw 445,000 fewer patients treated in the private hospital sector as private hospital capacity continued to be limited by staff shortages and absenteeism due to COVID-19 and flu.

Internal surveys from Australia’s private hospitals show about 8000 nurses are needed to fill positions around the country, Australian Private Hospitals Association chief Michael Riff said.

“Hospitals are generally reporting activity levels are improving, but they are still being constrained by staff shortages,” Australian Private Hospitals Association chief Michael Roff said.

“Therefore, it’s unlikely any significant inroads have been made in addressing the shortfall.”

Some patients are waiting so long for their surgery their condition deteriorates and they are admitted as emergency patients and this pushes other people on the elective surgery queue further back in line.

“Emergency cases are displacing elective cases some elective cases are being put on hold or cancelled to allow for hospitals to deal with emergency cases,” Professor Robson said.

“It’s like kind of wheel of horror. A lot of patients actually get worse. So the complexity of the surgery they’re having goes up”.