Patients face 10-year wait for orthopaedic surgery

● DA’s Cowley blames interminable delay at Frere Hospital on years of financial mismanagement by department

Patients requiring orthopaedic surgery such as joint replacements at East London’s Frere Hospital face a decade-long wait.

Other provincial hospitals have indicated they are in the same or an even worse predicament.

Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth said in a written reply to questions from the DA that there were now 1,600 patients on Frere Hospital’s waiting list who were in need of arthroplasty surgery (joint replacements).

Patients requiring joint replacements are often in agonising pain.

She said it took nine years — though “the more realistic time is 10 years ”— of being on the waiting list before even being seen at the arthroplasty clinic.

Paediatric patients needing orthopaedic surgery could expect to wait at least a year.

She said there were now 60 children and infants on the waiting list.

Among other problems, the MEC said the delay was due to a shortage of orthopaedic theatres at Frere, which the department identified seven years ago.

Plans were drawn up to increase the number of theatres from two to four and to replace a condemned 40-bed wooden ward at the hospital.

But a long-standing budget shortfall, including for 2023, had put the project on hold.

The two available theatres were forced to prioritise emergency orthopaedic cases before elective cases such as joint replacements.

The demand for emergency procedures had increased due to injuries caused by violence and trauma.

Those on the waiting list were assisted with pain management and physiotherapy, she said.

Ironically, despite saying there had been no budget to increase the capability of a provincial hospital like Frere’s orthopaedic facility for more than seven years, the MEC claimed there were plans afoot to develop “province-wide district capability” to provide surgeries, including orthopaedic procedures.

Among other things, this required district hospitals to develop anaesthetic capability.

While some anaesthetic training had been held last year towards developing this capability, not surprisingly, the department had run into budget constraints when it came to purchasing the necessary equipment.

There was also a lack of doctors at district hospitals to expand surgical services.

She said that this year, the department intended focusing on eight to 10 hospitals, ensuring staff, equipment and infrastructure were available for more surgeries, ranging from wound washouts to skin grafts.

She said these interventions at district level would “free up” Frere theatre slates to catch up with elective backlogs. Her assurances have fallen on deaf ears when it comes to the DA.

The party’s health spokesperson, Jane Cowley, said the state of affairs was completely unacceptable and she had written to national health minister Dr Joe Phaahla and the health ombud’s office for urgent intervention and to address the province’s critical surgery backlog.

She said it was revealed last week that Livingstone Hospital’s orthopaedic department had written to patients informing them it could do nothing for them as it had no surgical equipment or implants required for orthopaedic surgeries.

“This is because the factually bankrupt department has not paid outstanding debts to suppliers who now simply refuse to continue supplying the department with surgical equipment and implants.

“It is outrageous that patients must suffer, and in critical cases undergo amputations, because of years of historical financial mismanagement by the department.”

She said it was unfathomable that proposals to strengthen district hospitals as a mechanism to relieve the crisis at Frere Hospital would be successful.

“By its own admission, financial constraints have prevented the department from providing these district hospitals with the necessary equipment for surgeries.”