Heart surgery times slipping back | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Wairarapa heart surgery patients are waiting an average of almost seven months for their operations at Wellington Hospital.

In September last year, after public pressure, the number of people waiting for heart surgery was reduced to zero and a pledge made to keep waiting times down.

However, the waiting list has been growing steadily this year. The average wait is now 6.9 months.

Wellington Hospital provides heart surgery for Wairarapa, Nelson, Marlborough, Hutt Valley, Hawke's Bay, Wanganui and Manawatu.

Figures show 47 patients have now been waiting more than the prescribed maximum six months for cardiothoracic surgery at Wellington Hospital.

Capital and Coast District Health Board medical services business manager Chris Lowry said the issue was still a high priority.

"We are still committed to reducing the waiting list, because of the impact it has on patients. We are doing everything we can."

A range of measures were under way, but efforts were being thwarted by a steady stream of acute cases forcing the postponement of less urgent operations, she said.

Patients having urgent surgery were usually already on the waiting list, but most had not been waiting more than six months.

During the year, the board has put in extra funding to increase by two the number of beds in the intensive care unit. The second bed is not yet fully staffed.

The move had reduced the number of operations cancelled because an ICU bed was not available, Ms Lowry said.

In October just one operation was cancelled because of an overflowing ICU and in September three operations were put off.

This compared with 20 ICU-related cancellations in August.

Ms Lowry hopes to see some impact on the waiting list in the next few weeks.

A cardiothoracic surgeon vacancy and a shortage of anaesthetists was making it more difficult to do enough heart surgery, she said.

A new surgeon is due to arrive in January and the anaesthetist positions have been filled but the new staff have not yet arrived.

Staff are in the middle of a two-week blitz, trying to push through as many operations as possible, Ms Lowry said.

However, she could not say when the hospital realistically expected the waiting list to go down or be eliminated.

In May the hospital contracted out 16 operations to Wakefield Hospital to ease pressure on its own services. Those were finally completed in September.