Hospital Waiting-List Procedure Explained

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30133, 17 May 1963, Page 10

Hospital Waiting-List Procedure Explained

Where a person on the waiting-list for surgery at a Christchurch public hospital was unable to go into hospital when called, he or she would normally be put only a short way down the list—not to the bottom, Dr W I. Paterson, director if outpatient services to the North Canterbury Hospital Board, said yesterday. He was speaking in reference to a complaint made to ••The Press” by Mrs A. W A Gallop, of 23 Dampier street. Woolston.

The normal procedure was that a person unable to be operated on because of a cold or other sickness would seek

a note from his or her private practitioner as soon as the sickness was over, said Dt. Paterson. Where the reason was other than sickness, the practitioner's note was still required, as it could be that the patient’s condition might have changed in the interval since the operation was first recommended Even though extreme urgency was indicated, the patient might then expect to be put about three-quarters of the way up the list.

Mrs Gallop told “The Press” she had waited 17 months for an operation She was called to enter hospital on the day her daughter was to go into the maternity home She (Mrs Gallop! was the only person available to take care of the daughter's family When she explained this to the hospital waitinglist clerk, she was told she “need not think she would retain her place on the waiting-list.” Dr Paterson said Mrs Gallop’s account was "not consistent in several respects with the account given by the waiting-list clerk." If Mrs Gallop cared to make an appointment with him, he would be pleased to discuss the whole matter with her and the waiting-list clerk together.