Children suffer in pain as surgery waitlists blow out

With a spine so curved it’s pressing on her heart and lungs, Marcella Smiroldo has had her surgery cancelled three times. Our kids are suffering and in pain as queues for surgery have blown out by over 50 per cent.

Struggling with a spine so curved that is now pressing on her heart and lungs, Marcella Smiroldo has had her surgery cancelled three times.

In pain and increasingly anxious, Marcella, 16, has been waiting 18 months for an operation to correct her severe scoliosis.

She is one of many children suffering from exploding waiting times for surgery at NSW hospitals, which have blown out by as much as much as 52 per cent compared to last year.

“It has given her anxiety,” her mum Carmella says.

“She hypes herself up to get the operation done and then it is not happening for a few more weeks, then we get a date and it gets cancelled again.”

Marcela Smiroldo is 16 and has severe scoliosis of the spine which requires surgery. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Her father Joe Smiroldo said his daughter had been getting progressively worse on the waitlist.

“To say I’m annoyed is an understatement, if this continues, she won’t be able to walk properly and her breathing is affected,” he said.

An X-ray of Marcela’s spine, which has bent 80 degrees. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Urgent elective surgery at the Children’s Hospital Westmead (CHW) is down 28 per cent in the January to March quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year, and down a massive 53 per cent for non-urgent surgery.

Children were waiting an average of 244 days for surgery this year compared to 147 days in the same period last year with some children waiting up to 455 days for surgery.

There were 2329 children still waiting for surgery at the end of March Bureau of Health Information data reveals, almost double that at the Sydney Children’s Hospital (SCH) where 1335 were still waiting at end of the quarter.

Member for Campbelltown Greg Warren said the situation for western and south western patients had been brewing for years.

Marcella with her dad Joe Smiroldo. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“This was bad pre-Covid, so it is systematic of the serious issues we have with health resourcing right across the west and south west of Sydney that ultimately displays inadequate funding,” Mr Warren said.

Children waiting longer than benchmark recommended time was 634 at CHW at the end of March, almost double that of children at the SCH in Randwick where 345 waited longer than recommended.

Campbelltown paediatrician Andrew McDonald said it “was almost impossible to get anything done” at the CHW.

A CHW spokeswoman said some of the delays were due to non-urgent elective surgery requiring an overnight stay being suspended across the state from 10 January and resumed in phases from 7 February due to the Omicron outbreak.