APPOINTMENT WAIT FOR HEART ATTACK SURVIVOR
IN November last year, 71year-old Geoffrey Baker woke up in his Noonamah home to chest pains and profuse sweating.
Having suffered from heart attacks a decade prior, Mr Baker’s wife knew to immediately call an ambulance.
As suspected, doctors later diagnosed his medical episode as a heart attack.
For Mr Baker, who is also suffering from kidney cancer and a rare form of leukaemia, this was only the beginning of his nightmare.
An appointment with a heart specialist with NT Health was initially scheduled for December – but soon the delays started.
“I had someone call me and said my appointment was shifted to April,” he said.
The appointment was later changed again to a different day in April, and then shifted once more to August.
Mr Baker doesn’t know when he’ll truly get specialist treatment, but knows its not the medical staff’s fault for the constant delays.
“At the moment, the hospital is having great difficulty with staffing.”
“I’m not on my own here,” he said, referring to a friend who has had great difficulty getting treatment herself.
And despite his comorbidities, Mr Baker is also surprisingly modest about his situation.
“There’s a lot of people worse off than me and I’m lucky to have a lovely wife,” he said.
Mr Baker’s ordeal is just one of thousands. In recent months it’s been reported wait times for specialist and elective surgeries have blown out, with over 4000 patients waiting for procedures across the Royal Darwin and Palmerston Regional Hospitals.