Page 4063 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
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injured cyclist Mr Chris Burton reported that he had waited almost two weeks before receiving emergency surgery. On four days he was sent home before having to return to the pre-op room the next day. Mr Burton said that he had to fast each day from midnight in preparation for an operation that did not happen. Mr Burton said that staff had told him that two to four days wait was likely for emergency surgery and that “it had been like this for years”. In all, it took almost two weeks after his accident, with broken bones, before he had his surgery.
Minister, why is it regular practice for patients needing emergency surgery, and having been listed for operation, to have to wait almost two weeks for emergency surgery at TCH?
MS GALLAGHER: I am aware of the case of a Mr Burton from New South Wales who was booked in originally for emergency surgery on 30 October and ultimately had his surgery on 3 November.
In relation to the concerns that Mr Hanson has raised, I think it is important to understand that Canberra Hospital does all of the emergency surgery for Canberra and the region. On the days that Mr Burton was cancelled, there were a range of other operations that needed to be done more urgently than his, including, as examples, without wanting to breach anyone’s health records or privacy, repair of a ruptured or leaking aorta, retained placenta, craniotomy, abdominal aortic aneurysm, open fractures and emergency appendectomies. This is the nature of the emergency list. At times, people will have to wait. Mr Burton, as I understand it, was categorised as a category 4 patient in terms of the level of urgency for the surgery.
It is regrettable that there was a four-day wait, but the flip side of it is: should people whose injuries were more serious—who had more trauma and, at times, life-threatening injuries—wait in order for someone not to be cancelled? That is not the way the system works. The emergency list is managed over the weekends. There is reduced surgical activity over the weekends, but people are seen as quickly as they can be with the workforce that is available for those operations.
It is regrettable, and it is common with people coming in—perhaps not for four days. Cancellations of the emergency list are frequent because of the unpredictable nature of the emergency load. For example, you can be being wheeled into theatre when you are bumped for a more urgent patient. Staff at surgical bookings do an incredible job to manage it. We are looking at other ways to shift more elective work out of Canberra Hospital so that it can do more emergency work that is unplanned. The surgical-wide work that is happening across the two hospitals, between Canberra and Calvary, would provide some relief for that. But every hospital like Canberra Hospital will have to schedule patients around whatever emergency load comes in. It is reasonable and it is the only fair way of ensuring that everyone is treated on their urgency level, not for their particular injury.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Hanson.
MR HANSON: Minister, are people waiting longer than they need to for emergency surgery because the hospital is full or there are staff shortages, not just because higher priority cases eventuate?
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