Two-Year-Wait For Tonsil Operations

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30886, 20 October 1965, Page 1

Two-Year-Wait For Tonsil Operations

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, October 19. Nearly 1100 children are on the waiting list to have tonsils and adenoids removed in Green Lane Hospital, and for many the wait may be up to two years.

In many cases by the time the children come to have the operation it is found they have outgrown the need. Why does surgery become unnecessary? How much do the children suffer while they are waiting? The answers to these problems are being sought by an Auckland ear, nose and throat surgeon, who is conducting a survey among 600 children. “We may well find it is quite farcical to put children on this waiting list,” he said. The surgeon aims to investigate 400 children taken from the list for Green Lane Hospital and another 200 control cases taken from the general school populations. By the end of this month the first stage in the survey—selecting the control cases—should be completed. Since the work began in February, 160 control children have been selected with the help of public health nurses through the co-operation of the Health Department. Every year about 800 children have tonsils and adenoids removed in Green Lane Hospital for which the position of a full-time specialist ear, nose and -throat surgeon has been advertised.