Anger over ‘wasted time’ at hospital

Iona Jones is angry at wasting six days of her life and precious public resources waiting in Christchurch Hospital for thumb surgery she ended up not needing.

Christchurch Hospital emergency department staff are reporting higher than usual demand with patients being discharged in the middle of the night to free up beds. This meant less urgent surgeries were delayed.

Jones, a medical typist, said an orthopaedic registrar called her last Thursday and told her to come to hospital to be admitted the following day for surgery on the thumb she had broken three weeks earlier.

After a CT scan, she was admitted to hospital and had to be nil-by-mouth from midnight, which meant she could not drink or eat until her surgery the next day.

Surgeons were busy with more urgent surgeries on Saturday so hers was delayed. Five days later, she was still waiting. On some days, she ‘‘starved’’ until 9.30pm when she was told her surgery was delayed again. She was given IV fluids during the day and hospital kitchen leftovers at night.

Finally yesterday morning, she was told the surgery would happen. But the surgeon looked at the CT scan again – from the previous Friday – and decided to get a second opinion. The surgeon consulted said it was best not to operate.

Her discharge summary, seen by The Press, said: ‘‘Admitted under orthopaedics to await surgery. Due to high demand for theatre space, there was unfortunately a delay. A second opinion was requested and the decision was made to instead manage this fracture non-operatively . . . and we offer our apologies in regards to the change in management.’’

Jones said cases more urgent than hers should be prioritised, but she did not understand why she had to wait in hospital for so long, wasting public money.

When she asked if she could go home on leave, she was told she would be ‘‘bumped’’ off the operating theatre list, she said.

‘‘I have taken up desperately needed bed space and I am told it costs $800 to

$1000 a day for a hospital bed. That is

$6000 for the six days I have been in. If this should happen only 10 times to 10 patients, then that is one nurse’s salary wasted.’’

She was told hand injuries were not a

‘‘I have taken up desperately needed bed space . . .’’

Iona Jones

priority. ‘‘I find this difficult to understand, as most people’s livelihoods depend on using their hands. Certainly, I do as I am a medical typist.’’

Canterbury Charity Hospital founder Phil Bagshaw said the public health system had been ‘‘grossly underfunded’’ over the past nine years, leaving hospitals around the country under ‘‘enormous pressure’’.

The Ministry of Health expected district health boards to work more efficiently with limited resources, without cutting services.

‘‘You reach a point where you can’t do that anymore.’’

He hoped the new Government would invest more in health, as promised.

Canterbury District Health Board orthopaedics general manager Dan Coward said he could not comment on individual cases and asked Jones to contact the board directly if she had concerns about her care.

He said the board did send patients home to wait for surgery when it was clinically appropriate, often at the patient’s request.

‘‘However, in order to utilise our theatre resources most efficiently we do need to have a number of patients who are ready for surgery – in case, for whatever reason, one procedure cannot take place and a reserve patient who is ready can be brought forward.

‘‘Those in the greatest need are always treated first.’’