Leading surgeon calls on prime minister to intervene over Christchurch surgery crisis

A high profile surgeon is calling on the prime minister to step in over the hospital surgery crisis in Christchurch.

Phil Bagshaw, general surgeon and founder of the Canterbury Charity Hospital, said for the sake of public safety, Chris Hipkins needed to act now.

Are you affected by surgery delays or cancellations? Email kristie.boland@stuff.co.nz

The call comes after several surgeons revealed the situation at Christchurch Hospital is worse than health authorities are admitting as they are ordered to cut cancer surgery lists further from next week.

“There’s no question, it’s so bad now that what is required is for the prime minister to intervene,” said Bagshaw. “I call on him to intervene directly.”

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* Te Whatu Ora reviewing all health data after ED mistake

However, it took the prime minister’s office just 11 minutes to bat the issue to the Minister of Health’s office, when approached by Stuff.

Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall said reducing the planned care wait list was a “top priority”.

“I acknowledge how distressing and challenging the situation at Christchurch Hospital is,” Verrall said.

On Tuesday, Verrall met with the College of Surgeons to discuss pressures the sector is under on a national level, as well as in Christchurch specifically.

“Te Whatu Ora is working through the recommendations made by the planned care taskforce to reduce wait lists for planned care surgeries, which includes cancer surgeries,” she said.

A Christchurch Hospital source said patients booked weeks in advance were sometimes having their operations cancelled the day before or at the last minute.

Surgeons have been told to cancel more operations over the next few weeks.

The source added that operations were rarely cancelled if they were scheduled at the privately run St George’s or Southern Cross Hospital, where the public health system pays for theatre space.

In a statement, Te Whatu Ora Canterbury’s Lisa Blackler said clinicians had been asked to prioritise patients with the greatest need, but five cancer surgeries had needed to be deferred this week.

“We apologise to anyone whose surgery has not been able to go ahead, as we know how disruptive this is for you and your whānau. Our teams are working incredibly hard to ensure we are doing all that we can to deliver care to our community.”

Since July, 73% of planned care had been delivered, but some specialities would have a 50% reduction in their usual capacity next week, she said.

“Until we can recruit more anaesthetic techs, we need to reduce the amount of planned surgery to align with our available workforce. This is the only way we can continue to provide safe surgical care,” Blackler said.

Bagshaw was not surprised to hear of the imploding situation at Christchurch Hospital.

“We’ve written about this for many years. Since the mother of all budgets in 1990 we have been progressively starving the healthcare system of money, and this is a result of that,” he said.

“Doctors and nurses had to work harder and smarter and we’re more and more stressed trying to keep things going, and in the end the inevitable consequence is chaos,” he said.

Two things were required, Bagshaw said. “One is to start seeing health as an investment not an expense.

“The other is that clinicians – medical people – have to be running the system. You can’t have managers doing it. You need managerial assistance, but you do not need managerial leadership, you need clinical leadership,” he said.

National Party health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti said the accuracy of Te Whatu Ora’s data needed to be called into question.

“This is what happens when a government puts all its attention, money and resources onto a bureaucratic health restructure in the middle of a pandemic, instead of investing in front-line services and attracting a health workforce overseas.

“Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall must urgently confirm if the cancer monitoring metrics for Christchurch are correct, how many people are on the urgent cancer wait list and for how long, and how she will address the critical health workforce issues at Christchurch Hospital,” Reti said.

Bagshaw said he gave his full support to the doctors and nurses.

“The sadness for me is a group of us have been saying all these things since 1990. It’s a long time, and it’s testament to the staff that they’ve managed to keep things going.”