Long wait for knee surgery raises issues
Cooper’s Beach man Neill Bainbridge is finally getting closer to undergoing knee replacement surgery (And a painful New Year, January 29), but his wife Sheryl is still waiting for answers to some bigger questions.
Mr Bainbridge had seen a surgeon in Whanga¯rei on March 14 and was now on the waiting list. He underwent pre-surgery assessment in Kaitaia on March 28.
“Hopefully his health needs will be met soon,” Mrs Bainbridge said, “but many people’s needs are being ignored.
“At Whanga¯rei Hospital we were told he will have his operation there, as Kaitaia hospital is not being fully utilised. A couple of hips may have been done but they are not doing knees there at present. Why not, if the theatres are available?
“Had we lived elsewhere in the country, for example Auckland, and had knees half as bad as his are now, he would have been on the waiting list by now, but because of the sheer volume of people requiring joint replacements in Northland, that wasn’t going to happen.
“Northland is one of the top areas in the country for arthritis and the need for joint replacements. It is also one of the areas least able to fund these operations privately.
“While the scoring process set up by the Ministry of Health allegedly allows equity in joint replacements, in fact it makes the waiting lists for surgery look smaller than they really are.
“It is not transparent. It is not honest. It is not acting in the best interests of the public.
“So where does the responsibility for Northland not being given priority lie — central government, the DHB or management? I note that the DHB employs more than 2500 staff, and would like an assurance that its funding is going where it matters, ie. to doctors and nurses, and is not going primarily on administration.”
On March 12 Mrs Bainbridge had received a letter from the ministry deputy director-general DHB performance support and infrastructure in response to her email of December 24, saying it was not appropriate for the ministry to become involved in the clinical management of individual patients, but failing to address her requests:
■ That the Ministers of Health and for the Elderly look seriously at the impact of postponing surgery for those who met the clinical threshold for joint replacement in terms of the health strategy, ageing in place and the unmet needs of the elderly (age-related disability not being a preventable condition);
■ That the Northland DHB and the ministry release statistics that accurately reflected the extent of the issue, ie. more emphasis on facts and less on bureaucratic key performance indicators;
■ That the ministry develop a strategy, with urgency, to deal with the burgeoning need for joint replacements.
“The Minister for the Elderly has not seen fit to respond,” she said. “It is disappointing that the new Government has not taken a more enlightened approach to a major issue for a large sector of the community, ie. the elderly. As a reminder, statistics show that approximately 174,000 people are waiting for joint replacements nationwide, and the elderly are among those most likely to vote.
“The DHB staff we have dealt with have been generally helpful, and no doubt they work under a lot of pressure. Problems seem to be within the policy and procedure areas, and both the board and central government need to review those to better meet the health needs of the elderly so they can maintain their independence.
“Kaitaia Hospital should be fully utilised as well. If staff don’t want to live in Kaitaia, which is one thing I have heard, then look at what other options are available to them.
“The bottom lines are that a large group of people nationwide, mainly the elderly, are not getting the treatment they are entitled to, statistics on the extent of the problem are dishonest and inaccurate, and Kaitaia Hospital has theatre space that should be used to maximum benefit/advantage.”
The public were entitled to know what steps the Government, the DHB were taking to address the issues, she said.
“It’s time for a public explanation please, starting with accurate statistics on the following — how many people in Northland need and have requested joint replacements, how many are on the waiting list and how those figures stack up against the need in other parts of the country,” Mrs Bainbridge said. Kaitaia man Peter Kitchen took delivery of an unidentified marine object last week, from the woman who found it on the beach at Tom Bowling Bay half a century ago.
Dolly Brown was anxious that it not be discarded, Peter said, but neither she, nor he, had any idea what it was.
His best guess was that it might be some kind of nut. It was very light, obviously hollow, and rattled when shaken. It had a very hard exterior, although no one knew enough about these things to say it was petrified.
Even veteran beachcomber Ray Wiblin, who knows more than most about things that are found on the Far North’s coasts, was mystified.
“No idea,” he said when he was asked if he could identify it, “but if you were as old and as dry as it appears to be no doubt you would rattle too”.
“Looks like the sort of thing that has travelled from afar. Maybe South America. I wouldn’t like to be standing beneath one if it fell from a great height. A true widow maker,” he added.
“Given we get a lot of coconuts washed up on our beaches from up in the Pacific it has got to have come from beyond our near neighbours.”