Most frequent operations

Press, 24 December 1985, Page 3

Most frequent operations

PA Wellington The most frequent operations performed in public hospitals last year were those on female genitals (15 per cent), digestive systems (12 per cent), musculoskeletal systems (11 per cent) and obstetric operations (10 percent). In private hospitals the main operations were musculoskeletal (16.8 per cent), female genital organs (13.7 per cent), nose, mouth, pharnyx (11.3 per cent), and digestive systems (also 11.3 percent). Over all, surgeons in public hospitals performed fewer operations during 1984 than in 1983 and hospitals discharged more patients than in the previous year, according to figures released by the National Health Statistics Centre. The chief health statistician, Mr John Findlay, said in a statement yesterday there were 65.1 operations for gach 1000 population, a

drop of one in 1000 from 1983. A further 21.2 operations a thousand were performed in private hospitals. During 1984, 429,745 patients were discharged from or died in public hospitals, and Mr Findlay said that, if pregnancy were excluded, the figures represented 109.4 annual discharges for each .thousand head of population? For maternity cases, the discharge rate increased by 0.4 . per 1000 women and over-all bed usage increased slightly (0.3 per cent). “Pregnancy was the largest, discharge category with 72,288 discharges, 16.8 per cent of the total. The next largest was injury and poisoning at 13.1 per cent followed by circulatory disease at 9.4 per cent,” said Mr Findlay. The report shows that patients stayed in hospital beds on an average of 10.6 days, 0.3 days less than in 1983. .ip