Cancer patients fear health deterioration with lengthy hospital waiting times
Lyn Anderson has a rare form of aggressive cancer and has had to opt to go private with unacceptable wait times for treatment at The Calvary Mater Hospital
Newcastle
Don't miss out on the headlines from Newcastle. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Cyclist banned from using running mixed section Newcastle light rail
- Paedophile priest sentence to eight years jail
Maryland’s Lyn Anderson has endured a tough four year health battle, with an extremely rare and aggressive cancer which has riddled her body with tumours.
In 2015, Ms Anderson was diagnosed with malignant phyllodes where she first found a tumour in her breast, before it later spread to her lungs.
Since then she’s had seven operations, including one on her arm, where the bone had broken through and there was fear the cancer could spread to other parts of her body.
While dealing with the cancer, Ms Anderson has also been forced to endure lengthy waiting times.
In 2017, the chemo-therapy wait list at The Calvary Mater hospital blew out to six weeks before she was able to start a course of intensive five-day-a-week treatment.
Despite being struck with a more costly bill, Ms Anderson also opted to switch to private with most of her operations for cancer treatment because the wait list was simply too long.
“The tumours tend to grow extremely fast and it can go anywhere in the body and there is just no cure for it, so anytime a tumor pops up I have to get it cut out as soon as possible,” she said.
“It’s very scary when you’ve got cancer, especially when you’re first diagnosed.”
“A lot of people hear cancer and they immediately think, OMG am I going to die, and it’s a long time to go through those feelings.
“They can’t tell you until you’ve had it operated on, whether they got it all, whether you’re going to be ok, whether it’s metastisized.”
In August, Ms Anderson found another tumour on the back of her skull. She couldn’t get in to see a surgeon until September before she was told they could only do the operation at The Calvary Mater Hospital in December, a long nine-week wait.
Again she opted to go private fearing it the cancer would spread waiting for the operation.
“It’s four times the size since when I discovered it,” she added.
“I said I’d rather go private even though it is going to cost me money because of the way these tumours grow so fast and I didn’t want it to possibly go in my brain.”
Ms Anderson is just one of many patients being forced to endure long waiting time for chemo-therapy and cancer treatment.
The Healthcare Quarterly Hospital report for April, June this year showed The Calvary Mater Hospital performed 388 elective surgery procedures, up 31 procedures from the same time last year.
It found, 246 patients on the waiting list were ready for elective surgery at the end of the quarter.
Statistics also showed waiting times for urgent procedures were at median 15 days, while in the 90th percentile it was a 27 day on average wait.
Semi-urgent procedure waiting times jumped to 43 days for the median and 75 days at 90th percentile.
State Member for Wallsend, Sonia Hornery, has spoken with a number of patients who have been advised by the hospital there are no spaces available for their treatment at the moment, having to wait until mid-November before treatment could begin.
She’s called on Heath Minister Brad Hazard to urgently look into wait times.
“This situation is completely unacceptable. Cancer patients should not be forced to wait six weeks before treatment starts,” Ms Hornery said.
“Being diagnosed and then advised that your treatment cannot start because of a lack of spaces is causing additional distress at what is a difficult time for patients.
“A lot of cancers are high-grade malignancies and it is important that patients get treatment in a timely fashion. Failure to do so will have knock-on effects in terms of survival.”Patients requiring urgent, life-saving treatment are always seen immediately. All appointments are reviewed daily and are moved forward wherever possible.
Calvary Mater Newcastle General Manager Mark Jeffrey said the hospital’s day treatment centre is part of the Medical Oncology Unit, and sees 53 patients a day.
“All of our patients are managed according to clinical urgency. We do everything we can to get our patients in for treatment as soon as possible, as we appreciate this can be a very distressing time for them and their families,” he said.
“Our patients come from all around the Hunter region, the Lower Mid-North Coast and from the New England, and our staff work incredibly hard to treat as many patients as possible each day.”