Hospital leaves hurt boy for 6 days

By ANGELA GREGORY health reporter

A teenager admitted to Auckland Hospital with a broken collar bone lay untreated for six days.

Tony Chester, a victim of overcrowded hospital wards this winter, lay unfed until late each day, waiting for surgery that never eventuated.

He was operated on only after his parents took him from the hospital to a private surgeon.

The 15-year-old Aucklander fell off his snowboard when he hit an icy patch on the Turoa ski field at Mt Ruapehu last month.

A general practitioner referred him to a specialist orthopaedic surgeon at Auckland Hospital, who wanted the operation performed as soon as possible.

Tony's father, Gary Chester - who has family health insurance - said the specialist booked his son into Auckland Hospital because the Accident Compensation Corporation would take too long to process the claim for private treatment.

Tony lost 5kg in hospital because each day, he was not allowed to eat before the planned surgery.

Each day, his case was pushed aside by urgent cases that came in.

"Every day they said he would get his operation," his father said.

"When it was cancelled he would get to eat about 4 or 5pm. They had to put him on a drip to keep the fluids up."

Finally Mr Chester took his son to a private surgeon at Mercy Hospital.

"We would have gone private right away but we needed ACC approval, which takes nearly a week."

His family rarely had contact with the public hospital system, and he was shocked at the service.

"Tony was taking up a desperately needed bed when he did not need one ... it's just abysmal."

Mr Chester has complained to the Auckland District Health Board, but says his criticism is directed at the system, not individuals.

"This is a huge waste of health board and taxpayers' money, incredibly inefficient and a complete waste of time and resources for everyone involved."

Had ACC been able to act more quickly his son would not have added to the pressure on the public system, he said.

The hospital's general manager, Meng Cheong, said yesterday it was extremely busy in winter and recently had a large number of patients needing urgent surgery.

Mr Cheong said surgical cases were treated in order of priority.

This meant less urgent operations had to be postponed, but patients were kept informed daily.

Mr Cheong said at no time was the clinical outcome for Tony compromised by the delay, and he was constantly assessed by a consultant.

ACC spokesman Dr David Rankin said the problem had arisen before, mainly in Auckland and Christchurch.

ACC paid a bulk fund to cover the needs of those admitted to hospital after accidents.

"The difficulty is that because we have already paid the public health system there is an obligation for them to do it."

He said there were not enough cases like Tony's to justify trying to change the whole system.

Other hospitals in the Auckland area have also been swamped by an influx of winter patients.

Counties-Manukau District Health Board spokeswoman Vivian Blake said 20 acute patients were waiting for surgery yesterday.

The surgery was for broken bones and other non-life-threatening conditions.

Hospitals in the Waitemata health district are also busy, but no surgery has been delayed. Northland and Waikato hospitals are not experiencing delays.

Feature: Our sick hospitals