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Gauteng MEC for Health Hope Pope has announced that central/tertiary hospitals in the province are experiencing backlogs in surgery due to factors such as limited theatre time, surgeon time, insufficient Intensive Care Unit beds and booked patients who do not honour appointments amongst others.

Gauteng hospitals conduct and average of 2 000 surgical operations a month and last year close to 30 000 operations were performed in all provincial hospitals.

However limited resources and lack of cooperation from patients sometimes necessitate that operations should be deferred. For instance Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, has deferred the following operations, 34 Paediatrics, 42 Surgical, 22 Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 18 Orthopaedics patients, 30 Neurosurgery and 25 Cardiac surgeries.

The hospital has a total of 132 patients waiting for Paediatric surgery, 272 for neurosurgery, 33 spine epidurals, 21 spine degeneration, 31 spine deformity, 187 hip replacement, 317 knee replacement, 300 cardiothoracic (paediatrics), 220 cardiothoracic (adults) as well as 67 for Ear Nose and Throats, says MEC Papo.

MEC Papo further announced that Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital has deferred operations as well, i.e. 27 Hepatobiliary, 31 Colorectal, 26 breast, 20 General surgery and 30 Orthopaedic operations. All in all, the hospital has a total of 50 patients waiting for Hepatobiliary, 150 Colorectal, 80 breasts, 9 burns, 11 vascular, 108 General surgeries, 220 orthopaedic and 2548 Ophthalmology waiting for cataract operations.

In April this year, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic  hospital entered into a partnership with Mediclinic through which Mediclinic assisted to reduce the waiting list by conducting some operations on behalf of Chris Hani Baragwanath.

“As we continue with the implementation of the Turn Around Strategy of the Department, I am confident that we will succeed in bringing down surgical backlogs and waiting times in Gauteng hospitals. The department has a plan in place to deal with the situation, this include prioritising emergency cases and improving the management of hospital units/departments.

“I am pleased to announce that we have already engaged some of our public health institutions to assess the possibility of them performing non-complicated cases to free up time for complicated surgery as well as extending operating hours beyond 4pm (16H00) including working on Saturdays,” says MEC Papo.

“The department is working hard to improve the situation. Whilst the surgical operations conducted are evidently more than those that are postponed, we are trying our utmost best to ensure that all patients receive treatment when it is due”, concluded MEC Papo.

The Department’s Turnaround Strategy for 2012 - 2014 amongst others seeks to address key issues such as staff shortage, repairs and/or purchasing of medical equipment and the issue of budgetary constrains in Gauteng health institutions.