Kids forced to wait months for elective surgery in public hospitals
Waiting lists for paediatric surgeries are blowing out to record levels with parents having to find the money to go private to save their kids from months of unnecessary suffering. See the wait times for elective surgery.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Parents who can’t afford private health are forced to watch their children suffer on long waiting lists to see specialists and have essential surgery.
When it comes to ear, nose and throat procedures, waitlists have almost doubled in the past decade.
Chantal Goudie’s 18-month-old daughter Zahra needs to see an ear, nose and throat specialist because she has large adenoids and tonsils and snores when she is sleeping.
She has already had one apnoea event where she stopped breathing and their GP has recommended she see an ENT specialist — but the cheapest she can find wants to charge more than $200.
Her local hospital at Campbelltown does not have an ENT and the waitlist at the free clinic at The Children’s Hospital Westmead is 11 months.
“She snores at night and during the day constantly. Every time she has a check-up they say her tonsils are large,” Ms Goudie, 21, said.
MORE NEWS
Coalition poured billions of traffic funds into Lib seats
’Sh**ty’ to shiny: Billionaire’s vision for Parramatta unveiled
“I was born with enlarged tonsils and adenoids and I had to have them removed at the age of 18 months due to developing sleep apnoea. She has been referred to see a specialist because my GP fears that she could be developing the same issue.
“The specialist in Liverpool I was referred to wants to charge $270 and you only get $70 back with Medicare. I’m a single mum on the pension and I simply can’t afford that.
“I can put the money together but that just means I won’t have food for a fortnight. Or I would have to give up paying my electricity bill.”
Waitlists for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy at the CHW have also blown out in recent years.
In 2016-17 only 2.3 per cent had not been seen within 365 day for adenoidectomy. That has grown to 13.2 per cent. Tonsillectomy wait times have doubled in the same period from 6.6 per cent to 12.6 per cent not operated on within one year. In 2011, CHW performed 520 tonsillectomies but, in 2019, only 243 were performed.
Newcastle single mother Terrie-Ann Cook’s daughter Kate waited more than 18 months to have grommets inserted in her ears at John Hunter Hospital and believes the long waitlist damaged her six-year-old’s hearing.
“I rang when her eardrum burst and they said it would be another six months and I knew she needed surgery, she was in pain and it was impacting her hearing,” she said.
“I accessed my super to pay $5900 for a private surgeon in Sydney to operate last July.
“There isn’t enough ENT surgeons and doctors to go around.
“Kate has lost about 25 per cent of her hearing. It’s really sad, I can understand the wait for joint replacements and so on but we are talking about kids. I’m a single mum but I have super, but what about others who don’t?”
Claymore mum Patricia Marshall’s one-year-old has suffered severe recurrent ear infections and is still waiting to see an ENT specialist.
“Yes, it’s really not fair. My baby has ear infections every two weeks and has constant swelling and red ears,” Ms Marshall said.
“It has affected her speech, her walking. I can’t imagine the pain she is in.”
Ms Marshall, 36, said her partner had aboriginal blood but no paperwork and only through applying to an aboriginal foundation did she get an appointment for their daughter.
“We managed to apply through the aboriginal centre to have them pay for the first appointment, which is next month, as the wait list for Westmead is too long,” she said.
“It costs $280. I started panicking, my kid is sick and I don’t have that kind of money, I can’t come up with that. The once-off is fantastic, but for future appointment I don’t know how we are going to afford it.
“She might have glue ear, so we might see a paediatric ENT a few times, so we have to start cutting back to save up for these future appointments.”
Her partner works part-time and Ms Marshall is on a disability support pension but studying at TAFE.
Campbelltown paediatrician Dr Andrew McDonald said the situation in Southwestern Sydney was an “an enormous problem”.
“In Sydney at the moment, no-one can afford to see a specialist in paediatrics.
“The Medicare rebate has meant a lot of specialists, especially younger ones are happy to get out of bulk billing because they can’t afford to run a practice.
“There is no ENT in Campbelltown. Effectively there is nothing. There is an ENT unit at Westmead with a long waitlist. It’s impossible.”
Dr McDonald said many specialists were not training new registrars to meet demand.
“Free healthcare doesn’t exist in ENT, orthopaedics, and cardiology,” he said.
“There are not enough ENT surgeons partly because ENT surgeons have been reluctant to train them, so the government has something to do with it but the medical profession has probably got more of a responsibility for lack of access to ENT services,” Dr McDonald said.
Former Australian Medical Association president Dr Brad Frankum said: “The number of people trained was dependent on the availability of training jobs in public hospitals but most routine ENT surgery was taking place in private hospitals.
“The public system is hampered by a lack of training experiences available, so fewer are being trained as specialists. If you have the means to see a private ENT then your child with tonsillitis or sleep apnoea can be see quickly. If you don’t, you have to go on a very long waitlist.
“Many ENT doctors have chosen not to work in the public system anymore.”
A spokeswoman for the Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery said there were 23 in training in NSW, all of which were required to do a paediatric component.
ENT surgeon and spokesman for the Royal College of Surgeons, Dr Raymond Sacks, said surgeons are being trained but blamed government budget cuts for diminishing positions in the public system.
“They are lots of young dynamic and enthusiastic surgeons coming out of training programs who just can’t get jobs in the public system. The problem is funding, we would love to have more consultant surgeons on and more operating time. We can only train people who have enough operative exposure, if we don’t have adequate theatre time it is difficult. It is a state government issue that we have a lack of operating time.
“If you child needs surgery and you can pay, you can get it done quickly, if you can’t pay, you have to wait and that is the reality,” Dr Sacks said.