Heart surgery list up: call for unit renewed

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 2

Heart surgery list up: call for unit renewed

Rising numbers of Canterbury patients waiting for heart surgery prompted another call by Canterbury Hospital Board members yesterday for a cardiac surgery unit in Christchurch. '

Although there had been 100 more heart surgery operations in 1984, the waiting list for Canterbury patients had still increased, Mr Tom McGuigan told the board’s health services committee.

Although the list here had increased by only six people, the length of time they were waiting was significant, he said. In December, 1983, there were 16 Canterbury patients who had been waiting for surgery for one to two years. That number had increased to 46 in 1984.

Mr McGuigan said it was time the board acted positively and pushed for a cardiac surgery unit in Christchurch.

A unit had been approved in 1975, then approval had been withdrawn. Since then, as-

surances had been given every year that the situation would improve. The board was told subsequently that the advent of the Cardiac Surgery Register should be organised before consideration was given to a unit. That register had now been published for several years, at least a year out of date by the time it came out, and still nothing had been done. Canterbury patients

were shown to make up a large number of patients waiting for surgery, Mr McGuigan said. "We cannot go on year after year accepting the fact that a cardiac register will solve what is a physical situation,” he said.

“Canterbury patients are disadvantaged, and descriminated against. It is a question of parochialism and people working in the interests of their own areas and neglecting Canterbury again.” Dr Jocelyn Hay noted that cardiac surgeons, according to American experts, should do at least 200 operations a year to maintain technical standards. In Wellington, one operation was done a week, and Dunedin’s unit had cut back to two a week now. “One operation a week does not reach that level,” ■ she said. The board’s chairman, Mr Tom Grigg, said that it was not the fact that Canterbury did not have a unit that was causing problems, it was the fact

that the other three public units were understaffed. There was a shortage of nursing staff for the Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin units, he said, which problem needed to be rectified before Canterbury. could be considered. Last year, Dunedin’s unit managed to get its third heart surgeon, but it now had had to cut back operations because of the lack of nurses. “There could be a capacity to do a lot more operations in New Zealand,” Mr Grigg said. A heart surgery unit was also extremely expensive to set up and run, and Mr Grigg was not sure if Canterbury could afford one, under the present funding formula. The committee resolved, on the motion of Mr McGuigan, that the board compile the most recent figures it could find and approach the Minister of Health, Dr Bassett, to remind him of the “grim situation” in Canterbury.