Financial hit easier than pain
Susan Wauchop paid for her hip replacement rather than wait for elective surgery. Susan Wauchop describes it as her year of pain.
The 74-year-old Christchurch woman had her left hip joint replaced in September, paying about $22,000 to have the procedure done in a private hospital because she could not bear going through months of pain waiting in the public system.
While it cost her ‘‘a significant chunk’’ of her retirement savings, the former health policy adviser said the surgery, at Southern Cross Hospital, was worth it.
‘‘I decided that financial pain was easier to deal with than physical pain.’’
Figures obtained by The Press show 752 people were accepted and added to the wait list for hip surgery by the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) in
2018/19. That year, health board surgeons performed 595 hip surgeries. The average wait time from acceptance to surgery was
101 days.
The Press obtained information about five common elective procedures: knee and hip replacements, colonoscopies, hernia surgeries and cholecystectomies, the removal of the gallbladder. In 2018/19, the longest average wait from acceptance to surgery was for knee replacements – 110 days.
The figures do not include the number of people not accepted for the procedures.
In the past two years, the number added to the wait list for a colonoscopy has spiked, up to
2955 in 2017/18 and 2966 in
2018/19. Wait times for the procedure have increased too, up to
60 days in 2018/19 compared to 41 days five years ago.
CDHB planning, funding and decision support executive director Carolyn Gullery said the wait time trends for hip and knee surgeries were within normal variations, and the increase in
2018/19 was mostly due to the effect of the March 15 terror attack. The DHB was working to reduce back to ‘‘normal’’ wait times, she said.
As for colonoscopies, Gullery said this was due to increased awareness of bowel cancer. There had been a more than 20 per cent increase in referrals, she said.
When Wauchop started noticing pain in her left leg she initially thought she had pulled a muscle. She went to see her doctor in May after a trip to Auckland where she realised she was struggling to walk up hills.
In July, an X-ray showed severe osteoarthritis. Her GP referred her case to the CDHB, and in early August she got a formal letter saying her case had been accepted and she would have an appointment with a surgeon by November 8.
However, Wauchop said an administrator told her the surgery would happen about three months after the appointment. Struggling with severe pain, she could not bear the thought of waiting so she opted to go private.
‘‘By July I could barely walk. This has been my year of pain. I think, pretty much since May, I haven’t had a proper night’s sleep.’’
Wauchop described herself as a supporter of the public health system and said it did an amazing job. However, she did not believe it was funded adequately to deal with the needs of a growing and ageing population, meaning people were either missing out or managing severe pain.
University of Otago, Christchurch professor Gary Hooper, head of the orthopaedic surgery and musculoskeletal medicine department, said there was growing demand for joint replacement.
Four factors were driving demand, he said: the ageing population, obesity, patient expectations to be more active in later life, and the success and safety of joint replacement procedures.
A University of Otago study published this year in the New Zealand Medical Journal found the healthcare costs of knee osteoarthritis were projected to increase from $199 million in 2013 to $370m in 2038. An additional 4000 knee replacement surgeries a year would be required by 2038 to maintain current levels of access, the study found.
Just to cope with the increase in knee replacement surgeries, Hooper said there would need to be an additional 100 orthopaedic surgeons. Growing demand for joint replacement surgery would have an impact on the public health system, he said.
Without sufficient resourcing and new infrastructure, wait times would increase, as would unmet need in the community.
‘‘By July I could barely walk. This has been my year of pain.’’ Susan Wauchop