‘Broken’ system delivers big wait
Let down by surgery delays
Otāne’s Robbie McKee was newly retired, and looking forward to enjoying it, when a driver crossed the centre line and hit him head-on. About 17 months on from the incident, a knee destroyed by the impact is what he wakes to every morning.
Reconstructive surgery would give him a proper retirement, he says, but after the disappointment of two deferrals from Hawke’s Bay Hospital, he now knows he can’t bank on getting it any time soon.
McKee describes the health system as “broken”, and says he’s not alone in feeling that way.
As of Thursday, there were 151 people in Hawke’s Bay on the waitlist for knee surgery, and an average wait time of 206 days.
But there are promising signs for those waiting. The number of knee procedures carried out in Hawke’s Bay from April to July has steadily been increasing, from 23 in April, to 35 in May, to 43 in June, and finally 51 in July.
RNZ reported this week that Te Whatu Ora — Health NZ leaders requested last month that all 20 health districts “actively tackle” long waitlists by ensuring 7500 people who had been waiting longer than 12 months were given a booking by August 31.
There was no requirement for the operation to be done by the end of August, only a plan for when they would get it.
McKee said a surgeon put him down for an emergency re-break of his knee and reset with pins for his leg in February this year because it hadn’t healed properly, but the first date was deferred until Tuesday, August 23.
“I was due to be at the hospital at 12pm and some time shortly after 9am I get a phone call from the nurse
who informed me that mine and another surgery were both deferred.”
He said he understood from the phone call that they had room in theatres, but not enough beds for the patients due to Covid.
“I appreciate Covid has been a terrible test for the world, let alone our country.
“But still, two years down the road, operations cannot start.”
He said he had been told the wait for a new surgery appointment could be up to six weeks. But no specific appointment had been given yet, and he fears another deferral.
“It has left me feeling entirely let down.
“They released me from hospital last year, and between then, I have been in and out of a cast, a wheelchair, moon-boots, walkers,” McKee said.
He said he is unable to enjoy things such as hobbies, and particularly DIY, which he has a huge passion for.
“I cannot maintain my own home, I cannot get up a ladder; I can no longer prune my own hedges or trees.”
He says the system is failing workers and patients.
“I do not hold clinicians, doctors or nurses at fault. It is the system that I believe is broken,” he said.
Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s chief operating officer, Chris Ash, said Covid-19, coupled with other illnesses, had resulted in unprecedented demand pressures on the hospital system and its workforce due to high levels of staff sickness, or caring for dependants.
He said Hawke’s Bay Hospital’s emergency department had also seen record numbers of patients who required hospitalisation in recent months.
“This results in operational decisions to help manage resourcing and demands, with our workforce adapting and redeploying to areas of highest need,” Ash said.
He said patient safety and care was their top priority at all times.
“Planned care continues. but at times acute life or limb (which includes cancer cases) take priority of theatres. Any patients deferred or waiting longer for planned care have been clinically reviewed as safe to do so,” Ash said.
He said an existing partnership with Royston Hospital and a new one with Kaweka Hospital (although Kaweka will not be undertaking orthopaedic surgeries for Te Whatu Ora Hawke’s Bay) will have an impact on reducing the waitlists.