Patients wait up to 16 months for hip surgery

A total of 1 478 patients are waiting for surgery at the Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg, with some patients waiting up to 16 months for an operation, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng said yesterday.

This was revealed by Gauteng health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa in a written reply to questions in the Gauteng Legislature, DA MPL Jack Bloom said.

The longest list was for eye surgery, where 600 patients needed operations, followed by orthopaedics with 566 patients. Other lists were general surgery 194; urology 39; ear, nose, and throat (ENT) 37; breast 23; and neurology 19, he said.

The longest waiting time was at orthopaedics, where patients waited 12-16 months for a hip or knee operation. This means a new patient will be scheduled for surgery in October 2018.

Cataract operations take up to six months but ENT had done well in bringing waiting times down from three to six months to three to six weeks, which showed what could be done with good organisation, Bloom said.

Neurosurgery would take four to five months, but urology was four to six weeks and breast surgery was also done quite speedily, especially for cancer patients.

“I am concerned that 104 operations were cancelled last year, some because patients did not show up and others because of power outages,” said Bloom.

“It’s a mixed picture for surgery at this hospital, with some departments showing improvements, but problematic delays with eye surgery and orthopaedics,” he said.

Patient numbers were increasing because the hospital took patients from other provinces, even some from the Eastern Cape. Further efforts were needed to cut down the waiting lists as much as possible, as patients suffered from long waiting times, he said. – ANA