The Sunshine Coast’s flagship hospital has more patients languishing on surgical waiting lists than Queensland’s biggest hospitals, new figures reveal, which is forcing many to seek treatment in Brisbane.
Waiting lists for some life-changing operations at Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH) are longer than those at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and Mater Adult Public Hospital, despite our region’s smaller population.
The blowout has led to patients like Sunshine Coast photographer Barry Alsop, who needed hip surgery, taking matters into their own hands and pursuing an operation in Brisbane as a public patient.
The $1.8 billion SCUH opened in 2017 promising to deliver high quality health care and services that would mean more residents could be treated locally, rather than having to go to the State capital.
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But the latest performance data for the January to March quarter exposes a major problem at the hospital when it comes to orthopaedics, general surgery and ear, nose and throat operations.
Figures show there were 773 people waiting for orthopaedic operations, such as hip surgeries, at SCUH compared to 684 at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and 660 at the Mater Adult Public Hospital.
Ear, nose and throat (ENT) was an area where SCUH’s waiting list was more than double that of the Royal Brisbane, with 1,152 people in the queue on the Coast compared to 551 in Brisbane. The Mater Hospital had 310 on its ENT waiting list.
Patients requiring general surgery on the Sunshine Coast were also being forced to keep their hopes up as 990 people waited their turn in contrast to 623 at the Royal Brisbane.
Urology was another area where the Coast was falling behind, with 291 people on the waiting list compared to 185 in Brisbane.
The latest SCUH data shows there were 3,899 people waiting for all types of elective surgery in the January to March quarter this year, ranging from gynaecology to ear, nose and throat and ophthalmology.
Almost 70 per cent of them (2689) had been lumped into Category 3, which is considered the least urgent and therefore has a longer waiting time.
There were 320 patients considered urgent enough to be placed in Category 1 and 890 in Category 2.
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One man who knows how it feels to suffer without light at the end of the tunnel is Mr Alsop, who waited more than a year after his GP’s referral to the SCUH in October 2019.
Barry had severe hip pain which X-rays showed was osteoarthritis in an advanced stage which he described as “basically bone on bone”.
Despite this, he was classified as a Category 3 patient (categories are listed from 1 to 3 in order of urgency) which a physio later upgraded to a Category 2.
”At this time, it was guaranteed I would see the surgeon within 90 days. This was the response from the Patient Liaison Officer and I quote: ‘Unfortunately, at this time Category 2 patients are waiting longer than the clinical recommended time of 90 days. Currently Category 2 patients are awaiting approximately 8 months’.”
Barry said he waited until the pain had become “unbearable” before taking action and, in desperation, seeking out a public surgeon in Brisbane who did the 90-minute operation in April.
“He was pretty disgusted and frustrated with wait times on the Coast himself and basically got me onto the theatre list with registrar,” he explained.
“So only about three weeks after that consult with this surgeon, I had a right hip replacement. My life is pretty much back to normal and pain free for the first time in almost two years.”
“I am still waiting to hear back from the Sunshine Coast Health system.”
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A SCUH spokesperson said waiting for appointments could be “distressing” but the hospital was “working hard to ensure our patients are seen in a timely manner”.
“Each week 2500 referrals from GPs are received by Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service for outpatient appointments with clinicians across all medical and surgical specialties,” said the SCUH spokesperson.
“When a GP referral is received, it is triaged by a clinician and categorised according to clinical urgency. Patients are allocated appointments with specialists according to clinical urgency.
“Where patients are referred for review by a surgeon, it is not known if surgery is required until that review takes place.
“Approximately 25 per cent of patients referred for review by a surgeon require elective surgery. Those which do not require surgery may be offered other care treatment plans such as physiotherapy.”
