Gisborne pensioner dealt with depression, chronic pain in year-long wait for surgery

RNZ News

3 days ago

It comes amid ongoing doctor shortages at Gisborne Hospital. (File photo)
Photo:
Liam Clayton / Gisborne Herald
A Gisborne pensioner dealt with chronic pain and depression during a year-long wait for surgery for severe sinus inflammation.
It came amidst
ongoing doctor shortages
at Gisborne Hospital.
As of April, about 40 percent of senior doctor positions at the hospital were vacant.
RNZ understands that Gisborne Hospital currently has just one ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist who works part time.
The patient, who asked not to be named, said he had to put his life on hold as he lived for over a year with lingering pain - which he described as the feeling of after being hit in the face - as well as mucus and breath that smelt like "strong cheese and chives" due to his infection.
The man said he had issues with his sinuses for 20 years, but a dental surgery that punctured his sinuses early last year left him with a severe sinus infection that did not go away.
"My cheek, and up the left side of my nose and right up to - there's a small sinus above your eye as well above the left eye - that was all infected and just packed full of pus," he said.
He said most nights he was not able to sleep until midnight, and sometimes would sleep in a sitting position to make breathing easier.
The man's GP confirmed a first referral letter was sent last May, but it was not until October - after two follow up letters from his GP - that he got to see an ENT specialist.
While initially told it would be four months wait for surgery, the man said he was later told that there was no staffing for his surgery to go ahead when he followed up with Health New Zealand (HNZ).
The man said he was told in February, there were people who had been waiting for surgery much longer than him - including a patient at the top of the waiting list who had been waiting for about 700 days.
He said during his long wait, his reliance on anti-inflammatories and about eight courses of antibiotics were taking a toll on his body.
He said he also developed depression.
"People have said to me, what was it like? And I said, well if I had a gun, I would have used it on myself, literally. That's how bad it was, the depression that came with it," he said.
The man said his operation was eventually outsourced to a private hospital in Hastings in late April, with travel and accommodation costs covered by HNZ.
He said while he was delighted to finally get his operation done, the process made him feel "abandoned" by the health system, and he worried about the impact on others who had similar experiences.
The man's GP, who also did not want to be named, said he should have been treated in a month, given his condition.
She said she had noticed an increasing number of referrals being declined or taking up to a year for the patients to be seen.
She estimated about 40 percent of her ENT referrals were either getting rejected or "getting nowhere".
The doctor said this further strained already limited resources for GPs, who were left holding the patients' hands for much longer during their waits.
"It's really difficult as a GP, because I feel like it sometimes doubles or triples our job, because we have these patients coming back to us desperate to be seen.
"Sometimes I'll write more than one referral, maybe three referrals, pleading with the department to expedite this person's appointment," she said.
She said the waits were particularly pronounced in ENT and orthopaedics.
She said it appeared that all patients other than "priority 1" (top priority patients) were having to wait for over four months or longer for appointments.
HNZ has been approached for comment.
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