1 921 patients waiting for surgery at Steve Biko hospital
Bloom said some patients had been waiting for more than two years at a time for surgery.
Almost 2 000 patients are awaiting surgery at Steve Biko academic hospital thanks to a backlog, it was revealed last week.
Some patients will have to wait for as long as two to five years.
“It’s a vast human tragedy that so many people suffer in pain while waiting for surgery,” said Gauteng shadow MEC Jack Bloom.
In total, 36 000 patients are currently on various waiting lists for their procedures at various Gauteng state hospitals.
Biko has 1 921 patients awaiting surgery.
Bloom said cataract surgeries have the most number of patients on the list, with some patients having waited for more than two years before being operated on.
This is followed by hip surgeries, with a waiting period of two to five years.
“The largest backlogs are in cataract surgery, with more than 10 000 patients who will wait up to two years at the Steve Biko and George Mukhari hospitals, but six months or less at the Tembisa, Kalafong, Pholosong and Mamelodi hospitals,” Bloom said.
The worst waiting times are for hip and knee replacements, which will mostly take from two to five years, although some hospitals do them in less than a year.
Bloom said that while Covid-19 was a setback, the huge backlogs were “largely due to years of incompetence and corruption”.
Several patients approached Rekord recently recounting their experiences at the hospital.
Most of these patients were in dire need of surgeries, but had to wait for days before being taken to an operating theatre.
Barnard Swanepoel spent five days at the hospital in October last year, waiting for an operation on his right foot following a severe infection.
Swanepoel’s wife, Annalize, was very concerned for her husband’s well-being, but said that her hands were tied.
“There was very little I could do except sit and wait there for an operating theatre to open for him,” she said.
“It was so frustrating.
“We saw other people go in and just kept hoping that they would free up a space for him.”
Barnard is now wheelchair-bound after the amputation, waiting for the wound to heal before getting a prosthesis.
“It’s a disaster,” he said.
“My life will never be the same. Everything is so much more difficult with the wheelchair.
“We had to move things around the house for the wheelchair, but I am very grateful for my wife being there for emotional support.”
Hester Petronella was admitted to Steve Biko in late August for an infection in her foot.
She, too, was forced to wait for days before an operating theatre was made available to her where her foot was amputated.
According to her husband Paul, besides their lives having been irreversibly changed, “it has been heavy on our finances as well”.
In a media statement, the Department of Health said on January 31 that they have prioritised the “fast-tracking of critical and advanced medical procedures”.
“The waiting period ranges from weeks and months for some procedures like hernia repairs, cataract, and knee replacements; a year or more for procedures such as hip replacement, urethra structural, knee arthroplasty, implants, and up to 10 years for organ transplants (this is dependent on donor availability and type of case).
“Clinicians have to strike a balance between elective and lifesaving procedures that cannot wait.”
The department said, “regular departmental theatre marathons, utilisation of cluster hospital theatres and collaborations, filling of critical vacant posts, minimising disruptions at facilities through contingency plans are among the measures to ensure that as many procedures as possible can take place”.
It said Steve Biko hospital was fast-tracking the procedures for in-patients that are waiting for surgery and also performs surgical marathons for cataracts on a weekly basis.
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