A Gisborne pensioner dealt with chronic pain and depression during a year-long wait for surgery for severe sinus inflammation.
It came amidst ongoing doctor shortages at Gisborne Hospital.
As of April, about 40% of senior doctor positions at the hospital werevacant.
Health New Zealand (HNZ) confirmed Tairāwhiti had less than a quarter of the ENT specialist capacity it needed – it has one ENT specialist working 0.4 fulltime equivalent hours (FTE) and vacancies for 2.2 FTEs.
HNZ said about a third of ENT surgeries for patients in the region in the last financial year had to be outsourced to outside of Tairāwhiti.
The patient, who asked not to be named, said he had to put his life on hold as he lived for over a year with lingering pain – which he described as the feeling of after being hit in the face – as well as mucus and breath that smelt like “strong cheese and chives” because of his infection.
The man said he had issues with his sinuses for 20 years, but a dental surgery that punctured his sinuses early last year left him with a severe sinus infection that did not go away.
“My cheek, and up the left side of my nose and right up to – there’s a small sinus above your eye as well above the left eye – that was all infected and just packed full of pus,” he said.
He said most nights he was not able to sleep until midnight, and sometimes would sleep in a sitting position to make breathing easier.
The man’s GP confirmed a first referral letter was sent last May, but it was not until October – after two follow-up letters from his GP – that he got to see an ENT specialist.
While initially told it would be four months’ wait for surgery, the man said he was later told that there was no staffing for his surgery to go ahead when he followed up with Health New Zealand (HNZ).
The man said he was told in February, there were people who had been waiting for surgery much longer than him – including a patient at the top of the waiting list who had been waiting for about 700 days.
HNZ said currently the longest wait for ENT surgery without a booked date is 273 days.
The patient during his long wait, his reliance on anti-inflammatories and about eight courses of antibiotics were taking a toll on his body.
“People have said to me, what was it like? And I said, well if I had a gun, I would have used it on myself, literally. That’s how bad it was, the depression that came with it,” he said.
The man said his operation was eventually outsourced to a private hospital in Hastings in late April, with travel and accommodation costs covered by HNZ.
He said while he was delighted to finally get his operation done, the process made him feel “abandoned” by the health system, and he worried about the impact on others who had similar experiences.
Waiting for surgery takes almost a year due to lack of medical staff. Photo / Getty Images
The man’s GP, who also did not want to be named, said he should have been treated in a month, given his condition.
She said she had noticed an increasing number of referrals being declined or taking up to a year for the patients to be seen.
She estimated about 40% of her ENT referrals were either getting rejected or “getting nowhere”.
The doctor said this further strained already limited resources for GPs, who were left holding the patients’ hands for much longer during their waits.
“It’s really difficult as a GP, because I feel like it sometimes doubles or triples our job, because we have these patients coming back to us desperate to be seen.
“Sometimes I’ll write more than one referral, maybe three referrals, pleading with the department to expedite this person’s appointment,” she said.
She said the waits were particularly pronounced in ENT and orthopaedics.
She said it appeared that all patients other than “priority 1” (top priority patients) were having to wait for over four months or longer for appointments.
HNZ’s acting group director of operations for Tairāwhiti Nicola Barrington said she was sorry about the patient’s experience.
“We recognise [the patient’s] long wait for the care he needed has subsequently impacted his quality of life and general wellbeing and we apologise to [the patient],” she said.
Barrington said upon reviewing the patient’s records, they found his referrals were triaged and prioritised appropriately – “we appreciate this doesn’t diminish the distress experienced by [the patient] while he had to wait,” she added.
She said the wait times experienced by the patient reflect that ENT care was a high-demand service across New Zealand.
“All patients are triaged in clinical priority by a specialist surgeon with higher acuity prioritised and booked accordingly,” she said.
Barrington said there were currently 147 patients waiting for ENT procedures in Tairāwhiti and 56 of them had waited for over 120 days – she said this was down from 104 patients waiting for over 120 days in January.
“A focussed campaign is under way to recruit a permanent senior medical doctor team at Tairāwhiti Hospital.
“We cover our clinical services with support from regional specialists along with fixed-term and short-term locum doctors,” she said.
