Doctors fret over waiting times

By PATRICK GOWER and FRANCESCA MOLD

Patients at Green Lane Hospital face a dangerously long wait for elective lifesaving heart surgery.

About 137 patients, four times as many as last year, have been waiting more than six months for elective bypass surgery.

Six months is the recommended national standard.

But health authorities say they have the money to clear the backlog at Green Lane soon.

Health Minister Annette King told the Herald last night that the Health Funding Authority (HFA) had assured her there was enough money within the $74 million increase given by the Government to reduce waiting times.

She said the authority and hospital chiefs were working out how to reallocate money to clear the heart surgery backlog.

Auckland Healthcare chief executive Graeme Edmond said he was confident the problem would be resolved.

While the hospital was working with the authority on an immediate response, it was also looking at the long term by investing in new cardiac equipment.

But Green Lane's head of cardiology, Dr Warren Smith, said heart patients could not afford delays.

"The risk that people could die is always there with cardiac surgery, and that is only going to increase as waiting times increase."

Dr Smith said the hospital needed money for 180 more elective operations to stop the waiting list from ballooning further.

"That will stop the problem from getting worse, but it won't deal with the 137 patients who have already overshot the six-month wait. That will need a separate initiative."

HFA chief executive Peter Hughes last night said the authority acknowledged Green Lane's inability to adequately provide elective bypass surgery, saying it was working with Auckland Healthcare to solve the problem as soon as possible.

He said the delays at Green Lane affected only adults waiting for elective surgery, with immediate treatment available for children and those with urgent conditions.

"There is simply no truth to the suggestion that patients with acute need of cardiac operations having to wait for surgery at Green Lane or any other hospital in New Zealand," he said.

The HFA had publicly acknowledged last week Green Lane's inability to meet elective cardiac treatment. "But it is totally incorrect to suggest that this problem also includes patients needing treatment for acute cardiac conditions.

"Anyone requiring an acute bypass operation will receive it straight away."

Mr Hughes said he expected that the problem would be resolved in the next few days.

"Once we have identified and understood the cause of the problem we will address it immediately. If it is a funding issue, we will find the funds needed to meet the problem. If it is a capacity problem, we will consider contracting other providers to meet the immediate shortfall in bypass operations.

Heart Foundation medical adviser Dr Boyd Swinburn said the list had expanded rapidly because of a surge in urgent heart cases.

"These people don't have trivial conditions. They have important and significant disease, which doctors and the Government agree needs to be operated on."

Dr Swinburn said people waiting for a bypass often lived in a state of constant fear.

"To an extent it paralyses their life until they get the operation.

"They suffer limiting symptoms and are often living in fear of another heart attack."