Heart Patients Flown South; Hospital in Long-Haul Bid to Cut Waiting Lists

By RUSCOE, Kim

WELLINGTON heart patients are being flown to Otago for surgery in an attempt to cut waiting lists.

Ten patients made the trip south in late 2006 at a cost of thousands of dollars each.

Wellington Hospital medical services business manager Chris Lowry said more than 700 heart patients were on waiting lists at the end of the year and 84 had been waiting longer than the maximum six months recommended by the Health Ministry.

Of the 202 people needing an operation, 25 had already waited longer than six months.

At the same time last year, 162 heart patients were on the surgical waiting list. Three had been waiting longer than six months.

The delays go against government policy and a promise by Capital and Coast District Health Board in 2003 that no one would wait longer than six months for a heart operation.

But Ms Lowry said that promise was made by former hospital manger John Coughlan when close to 100 heart patients had been waiting longer than six months for surgery.

Though a concerted effort had been made to cut waiting times, an unusually high number of patients with heart problems — and strikes by junior doctors and laboratory workers — had seen them rise again.

“We still actively monitor and manage the waiting list but there will always be a small number waiting greater than six months because of the demand.”

As part of that effort, 10 patients and their support people were flown to Dunedin Hospital in the last three months of last year, she said.

The move added up to $2000 to surgical costs for each patient, and included airfares for two people and up to 10 days’ accommodation for a support person.

Ms Lowry said it was cheaper than sending patients to private hospitals for treatment.

Wakefield Hospital chief executive Richard Barnes said he turned down an informal approach by Wellington Hospital to pick up the surgical cases, as it was offering to pay just half its normal price.

The number of heart patients seeking private treatment had risen steadily over the past two years and the hospital was now doing more complex operations that were once done only in public hospitals, he said. “People are giving up on even these things.”

A Wellington woman who paid $43,000 to have her heart valve replacement surgery done privately two years ago said she was thrilled to learn that at least some of the backlog of heart patients had been picked up by another hospital.

“It’s fantastic. That’s one of the things I was pushing for,” Joanne Schimanski said.

In late 2004, bedridden and with a young child to raise, Ms Schimanski was told by two health professionals that she was likely to die before she became eligible for an operation under the public system.

But the decision to go private ultimately cost her marriage and Wainuiomata farm, she said.

A Health Ministry spokeswoman said district health boards were expected to match the commitments they gave patients with an ability to meet those commitments.

Ms Lowry said the recent purchase of a new processor for the cardiac catheter laboratory would cut waiting times further, once enough staff had been recruited to run it.

Cardiac catheterisation includes angiograms to detect narrowed arteries and angioplasty — usually at the same time — to open arteries.

Wellington Hospital provides heart surgery for Nelson, Marlborough, Wellington, Palmerston North, Wanganui and Hawke’s Bay.

(c) 2007 Dominion Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.