Facing the painful wait for hip operation
Tamsin Roberts is 44, not the age normally associated with needing a hip replacement.
But an injury to one hip while at work meant her relying too much on the other one, so that’s shot too.
“The way I walked for this hip over-compensated and wore it out,” she said.
Roberts is one of 625 patients on the orthopaedic waiting list in Taranaki. She has already been waiting for nearly eight months and is no closer to getting a date for surgery.
Te Whatu Ora Taranaki figures say the average waiting time for orthopaedic surgery is 187 days, and for routine procedures is 231 days.
But every minute of Roberts’ day is painful, she said.
“I want to work. I don’t want to be sitting here day in, day out. I want to be working.’’
In August, Roberts had an appointment with a Taranaki surgeon and was told “end of January at the latest” for her surgery, she said.
In November, she was sent to Te Whatu Ora Taranaki’s Taranaki Orthopaedic Triage service.
“The guy I saw said no later than March.” And he told her she was “in the top 5% of the worst hips in Taranaki.”
“They sent me the paperwork, being on the urgent list. ‘How much notice do you need if you were to be offered the operation?’ Hardly any. Give me 10 minutes.”
But by last week she still hadn’t been given a date for her surgery, so she rang the booking department at Taranaki Base Hospital, she said.
“They told me I was taken off the urgent list and put on the routine waiting list.”
Roberts said she was told it would likely be two and a half years for her surgery, a claim disputed by Te Whatu Ora Taranaki, which says waiting times are between 187 and 231 days.
Roberts made an appointment to see the surgeon, but the earliest she could get was the end of July. She was devastated.
“I’m not just an NHI number. I am a person and they need to realise that,” she said, getting emotional.
To date, Roberts has waited nearly eight months.
In the meantime, she can’t go out much, can’t do any exercise, has to sleep in a La-z-boy because when she lies down “it feels like the bone is coming out my butt cheeks”.
If she goes to the supermarket she needs to use the store’s mobility scooters.
“Most of the time I can’t leave my house. I can hardly get down my steps. Every time I stand up I have to think. Most people don’t think about walking. I have to think about every placement of my foot.”
Roberts’ uncle Bob Smith, 78, put in steps and handles to make it easier for her to get into her house, Smith said.
“They came to visit her and they were going to put a ramp in. Then the criteria changed and you had to be an amputee to get it.”
Roberts applied for home help in September and was told it would come through soon, Smith said.
“But nothing has happened. It’s April. They build up your anticipation like it’s going to get done. It’s a s... system. What do you have to do to get things done?
“If you’re not bitching all the time no-one wants to see you.’’
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora has made progress reducing waitlists and the goal is to have no-one waiting longer than 365 days for planned care treatment by the end of June 2024, Te Whatu Ora Taranaki boss Gillian Campbell said.
“A new treatment pathway for orthopaedic patients has been trialled at Taranaki Base Hospital, which uses the intervention of skilled physiotherapists and other allied health professionals when people are initially referred to a specialist to see if they need surgery.”
Called the Musculoskeletal pathway, it has shown good success at providing the right treatment for people early on, she said.
There are currently 1223 patients waiting for a specialist appointment, but not all patients seen by a consultant require surgery, and so only a portion of these patients will in fact go on to have surgery.