The Royal Australian College of Surgeons has said while record numbers of surgeries completed across a week in June are to be commended, long term fixes are needed if waitlists are going to be properly addressed.
Health Minister Meredith Hammat issued a press release celebrating a record 4,145 elective surgery admissions being made in the week leading to June 22, a record high number for a one-week period in WA.
Admissions for the seven days totalled 4,145, which was 11% higher than the 18-month average.
Elective surgery waitlists peaked at 33,206 in May 2022 following the peak of the pandemic.
By the end of June this year it was sitting at 28,996.
Minister Hammat said the “government had been focused on driving down the elective surgery waitlist, and we are delivering.”
She said a “coordinated effort across our hospitals is working, breaking our own elective surgery record three times in the space of 7 months.”
“There’s still work to do, and the Cook Labor Government will keep working with our hospitals to reduce the elective surgery waitlist and deliver the world-class healthcare Western Australians expect.”
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The State Government noted the number of patients considered to be waiting beyond the recommended time frame for their surgery had fallen 21% since January last year.
The recent record was completed by delivering additional weekend and twilight procedures.
Dr Foster told Medical Forum the college welcomed the push to reduce waiting lists.
“That’s the government’s efforts and also the staff on the ground, because people have been working above and beyond to achieve this,” she said.
“It’s what our patients need, because the longer people wait on wait lists, the more complex their health problems become, and it puts a strain on not only the patients, but also the health staff and our systems as we try and look after them.
Dr Foster said while when similar “pushes” to reduce wait lists had occurred post the height of the pandemic there had not been a shortage of volunteers willing to assist with extra shifts to do twilight and weekend surgeries however, she said longer term solutions needed to be incorporated into addressing waitlists.
“I think the problem is that it’s not really a sustainable way to address the wait list.
“People are willing to do that in the short term, but in the longer term, it’s not really the best solution,” she said.
Dr Foster said she hoped longer term workforce and infrastructure planning solutions needed to be considered.
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While the State Government celebrated the record achievement, the former AMA (WA) president finished up in the role in June saying the system had a serious shortage of hospital beds, dilapidated hospitals, and a need to train more staff.
“The reality is that we do have class services in Western Australia, from my experience than even in other parts of Australia, we really do have excellent surgical care, but obviously not without issues,” Dr Foster said.
“There’s a lot of ageing infrastructure, and there is need for increased infrastructure in operating theaters, ward beds, endoscopy, all of those things will become more of an issue,” she said.
“We know it’s not only that our wait lists are long because of the interruption of COVID, we have increasing aging population, we have ongoing population growth in Western Australia, and so a push is great, but in the longer term, if we don’t have longer term solutions, the wait lists will rise again.”
In terms of workforce pressures, she said staff hospitals are working at the maximum of their capacity and the infrastructure in terms of operating theaters, endoscopy suites and beds being used with maximum efficiency, so there was no room to maneuver.
Public hospital admissions for elective surgery were the highest on record in 2023–24, according to data released earlier this year from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The total number of admissions from elective surgery waiting list from public hospitals in Australia was 778,500, a 5.8% increase from 2022–23.
The institute had suggested this indicated a return to pre-COVID levels of elective surgical activity.
“While most elective surgeries performed in Australia are undertaken in private hospitals, the information presented in this update provides an overview of elective surgeries from public hospital waitlists,” AIHW spokesperson Clara Jellie said.
“The increase in the number of admissions from public hospital elective surgery waitlists follows a period of considerable disruption to the health system as a result of the pandemic, where we saw fluctuations in the numbers of elective surgeries being performed as outbreaks of COVID-19 impacted patients, and the availability of hospital staff and resources.’
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