Worst hospital waiting lists in NSW revealed

Thousands of patients are waiting so long for surgery doctors fear the backlog will never be cleared. See NSW’s worst offenders.

Exclusive: Covid’s devastating toll on public hospitals means thousands of patients are waiting so long for surgery doctors fear the backlog will never be cleared unless more hospital beds are funded.

A new report card released by the Australian Medical Association shows NSW hospitals carried out 10 per cent fewer elective surgeries in 2019-2020 overall.

But the number of less urgent operations like hip and knee replacements suffered an even greater drop of 16 per cent.

Across the nation 150,000 of the 837,000 patients admitted to public hospital waiting lists in the year to June 2021 were not treated, the report card reveals.

One in four Category 2 patients — which includes people needing cancer investigations, heart valve replacements, craniotomies for unruptured brain clots — were not treated within the recommended 90 day time frame.

One in five patients who needed Category 3 surgeries like hip or knee replacements, cataract surgery, grommets and tonsillectomies waited more than a year.

A staggering 8813 people waiting for elective surgery either died or were unable to be contacted before they had their surgery.

Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid wants more public hospital beds. Picture: Supplied

AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid said governments needed to “build up the long-term capacity of the public hospital system so that it is fit for purpose as it faces a vastly different environment that the pandemic has created”.

An extra 6850 public hospital beds were required nationwide by 2024-25 just to maintain the current, lowest in 27 years, ratio of beds to those 65 years and older and federal government funding had to be lifted to 50 per cent of public hospital costs, he said.

“The human cost of delayed treatment is real and patients were already waiting, in some cases, years to access care well before this pandemic started,” he said.

In June last year, a record 101,024 patients in NSW were waiting for elective surgery. This was up from 84,131 patients in 2019 data released by the state’s Bureau of Health Information shows.

Waiting times for non-urgent surgery ballooned to over 421 days in some cases and one in three patients were waiting longer than recommended for treatment.

Wollongong Hospital is the major hospital in NSW with the longest wait times for non urgent surgery. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Simon Bullard

Of the state’s major hospitals, Wollongong Hospital had the longest waiting times for non-urgent surgery like hip and knee replacements, with half the patients waiting more than 329 days for surgery, Australian Institute of Health figures show.

Westmead was the second worse with half of all patients waiting more than 287 days, while at Nepean the figure was 273 days – this compares to waits of 179 days at comparable hospitals.

However, in an astounding turn around, by contracting out over 5000 surgeries to private hospitals and increasing the workload in public hospitals, the overall waiting list across NSW public hospitals was shaved back to 85,296 patients by June 2021.

Just as doctors started to get on top of the surgery backlog, the Delta variant of the virus hit and a new Covid surgery ban was imposed which is expected to push out wait times all over again.

Even before the latest Covid outbreak reached its full height, ambulance arrivals and ED attendances had surged in the three months to June 2021 as an extra 28,666 patients sought health care.

The number of patients seen on time in emergency departments dived with one in three waiting longer than recommended for care.

The Australian Medical Association says a key reason is bed block — there are not enough beds available on hospital wards to admit the patients arriving at emergency departments.

Those aged over 65 are responsible for 40 per cent of public hospital activity.

However, the number of beds for every 1000 people in this aged group has been declining for 27 years.

Dr Danielle McMullen wants a waiting list plan. Picture: Jonathan Ng

NSW AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen said patients needed a plan to address the suspension of elective surgery in NSW and the subsequent delays to care this creates.

“Patients already faced inexcusably long waitlists and the decision to shut down elective surgery to focus on Covid-19 – whilst justifiable – will have significant ramifications on our patients,” she said.

Dr Khorshid said the situation was intolerable and in the absence of additional funding and deep system reform, it will only get worse.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard was asked to comment on the backlog, but did not respond by time of publication.

Andrew Vial, 80, has an injury to his ankle. Picture: David Swift

‘FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES HAVE TO LOOK AFTER THEIR CITIZENS’

Despite his age, 80 year old Andrew Vial is a speed demon on ice skates and skis.

But one race he’s not winning is getting his busted ankle fixed in a NSW public hospital.

“I’m trying to kind of keep myself in good nick,” said the champion veteran speed skater, who still stars as a stuntman in small scale films and wants to live to 110.

Delays in the hospital system have left the former scientist waiting nearly five months for surgery to fix his ankle, damaged in a car accident over 60 years ago.

Ligaments and tissue on his right ankle have eroded and he can barely walk more than 100 metres or go downstairs.

Andrew with an X-ray of his ankle injury. Picture: David Swift

“I can’t walk far at all now. The X-ray is showing the bones in my ankle are just rubbing against each other the whole time. The ligaments are all gone. There’s just nothing, that bone rubbing on bone,” he explained.

“I feel totally I should be able to get the surgery.

“There should be a huge sort of input into the health system through the government.

“I’m not talking about party politics, I’m just talking about countries. First world countries have to look after their citizens.”