Patient lost sight in eye waiting for treatment
A backlog of more than 5000 patients deemed ‘‘at risk’’ of going blind were waiting for specialist treatment in public hospitals in February this year, the Ministry of Health says.
The information has been released following a damning Health and Disability Commission (HDC) report on the case of Gore farmer Koby Brown, who lost sight in one eye after waiting a year to see a specialist.
Ministry of Health chief medical officer Dr Andrew Simpson said district health boards (DHBs) had reduced the number of patients in the ‘‘at risk’’ category from 10,223 in May 2017 to 5028 by the end of February 2018.
‘‘[DHB] activity to support improved eye health and backlog reduction continues and is being reported monthly to the ministry,’’ he said.
Brown said he was ‘‘pretty angry’’ when a doctor told him he was blind in one eye after his appointment happened six months late.
‘‘I wasn’t happy I can assure you of that.’’
Brown was 20 years old when he diagnosed with glaucoma by an ophthalmologist on September 16, 2014, and told he would need to be seen again six months later.
After three phone calls and suffering pain ‘‘like getting poked in the eye by a needle’’, Brown was finally given a follow-up appointment on September 9 the following year.
But by then it was too late. The ophthalmologist was in tears as he broke the news, Brown said.
‘‘I think he found it pretty bad as well . . . it wasn’t him that stuffed up, it was the system and he was the one that had to deal with it.’’
The HDC found Brown did not get a timely appointment as the Southern DHB did not prioritise them based on clinical needs.
Concerns about the lack of capacity at the DHB’s ophthalmology service were not acted on, even after an earlier serious event review.
Health and Disability Commissioner Anthony Hill acknowledged there was increased demand for ophthalmology services due to the introduction of new therapies and treatments in recent years, but said that did not mean health providers were not accountable.
He recommended the DHB carry out an independent evaluation of the system used to track follow-up appointments, recruit more ophthalmologists, optometrists, orthoptists, and ophthalmology staff, and write a letter of apology to Brown.
Hill also recommended the Ministry of Health set up a system to identify new healthcare technologies so ‘‘adequate planning and funding responses can occur in a timely way’’.
Southern DHB chief medical officer Dr Nigel Millar said the DHB accepted the findings ‘‘without qualification’’ and had sincerely and unreservedly apologised to Brown ‘‘for the omissions in the standard of care and treatment which he received’’.
Despite changes and holding weekend clinics in Dunedin, the DHB still had 768 patients whose followup appointments were 1.5 times longer than clinically recommended.
Following the diagnosis, Brown had surgery to save his left eye from blindness and a further two procedures on his right eye to reduce the build up of fluid causing pain. He said adjusting to the loss of sight had been a difficult process.
‘‘If I was born like this it wouldn’t be an issue, but since I’ve gone from two to one [eyes] it’s taken a fair bit to get used to.’’
He did not plan to take any legal action, but hoped the Southern DHB would implement the HDC recommendations.
‘‘If I was born like this it wouldn’t be an issue, but since I’ve gone from two to one [eyes] it’s taken a fair bit to get used to.’’
Koby Brown