die waiting

Press, 24 December 1985, Page 5

die waiting

PA Dunedin Patients are dyingltaring the year-long delay tor cardiac surgery at Dunedin Hospital, according to the . hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Tom McKendrick. The only cure was a skAh- . tion to the nursing shortage, he said. ? , He did not have exact figures but said “a certain percentage” died every three months while their names were on the waiting list ■ ■ ; . . In Dunedin, the problem ifad surfaced only in the past two or three years but Dr i: McKehdrick said patients in Auckland had died because of delays since the mid-197-3s.

The Dunedin waiting list was far too long “by any- . body’s standards”, he said. The amount of cardiac surgery increased in Dunedin from 129 operations in 1979 to 287 in 1983. .There were 261 operations last year and Dr McKendrick said be* expected a similar figure for 1985. More surgery could be handled if there were enough nurses, he said. Figures released by the chief health statistician, Mr F. J. Findlay, showed that New Zealand’s four cardiac surgery units handled 101 more cardiac operations in than in the previous year. During 1984, the national waiting list increased from

545 to 582. Mr Findlay said in his report that patients needing cardiac surgery were subjected to increasing delays, although the number of patients waiting longer than two years was reduced in 1984. . £ He said fewer people died while on the waiting list than was the case in 1983. A total of 63 patients (42 per cent) died after their operation — 13 fewer than in 1983. Of the overseas patients, 21 were from Indonesia, 20 from Fiji and 40 from 12 other countries. Of all patients undergoing coronary artery surgery, 1.6 per. cent were Maori and 83 per cent were male.