Surgeries cut because of memorial holiday

WELLINGTON: Hospitals are racing to cancel more operations because of the snap public holiday marking the Queen’s death.

Theatre schedules are being reorganised and patients contacted, many of whom have been waiting a long time.

Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand said hospital rosters on September 26 would be public holiday staffing.

However, until Monday, the date had been expected to be a normal weekday so appointments and operations had been scheduled.

New Zealand Association of General Surgeons president Rowan French said there was chaos as surgical bosses tried to rearrange plans.

‘‘We normally plan about two months ahead, so two weeks is a very short time to make any changes,’’ he said.

It was possible some cancer surgeries would have to be called off, but he hoped it would not come to that.

It was likely all acute work — such as timecritical cancer, heart and trauma surgery — would still go ahead.

But most socalled nonurgent surgeries, such as for joint replacements, gallbladders, hernias, hysterectomies and ear, nose and throat, would probably not happen — ‘‘Everything we haven’t been able to do for the last six months or so,’’ Mr French said.

The cancellations came on the back of several months where very few nonurgent surgeries had gone ahead in most major hospitals because they were full or shortstaffed.

Although the holiday was good news for many people, it did feel like ‘‘a small blow on top of everything else’’, he said.

Many of the patients would have already been waiting a long time and there would be flowon consequences.

‘‘Because there’s so little capacity, most spaces are filled. So, to rebook someone . . . involves shuffling other patients further down the line,’’ he said.

The country was already facing huge surgical backlogs before this year’s two Covid19 outbreaks. — RNZ