Median waiting times for some surgeries at Illawarra public hospitals more than doubled between 2019-20 to 2020-21, new data shows, reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) says median waiting times increased across almost all elective surgery categories at Wollongong and Shellharbour hospitals from one year to the next.
AIHW spokesman Dr Adrian Webster said hospitals were faced with a backlog of procedures after all non-urgent elective surgery was suspended nationally in March 2020 to secure the health system's capacity to manage the pandemic.
These restrictions meant only urgent and 'exceptional' semi-urgent procedures could be performed; they were eased the following month, but limitations remained in place.
The new data shows the number of patients at Wollongong and Shellharbour hospitals increased across all categories between 2019-20 and 2020-21, but the most dramatic rise was in non-urgent surgery patients, which increased by 48 per cent in Wollongong and 28 per cent in Shellharbour.
In NSW overall, elective surgery admissions to public hospitals grew by 21 per cent.
At Wollongong Hospital, the median waiting time for people in need of non-urgent elective surgery last financial year grew to 395 days, an increase of more than two months on the previous year.
The waiting time for semi-urgent surgeries rose from 55 days to 67, while there was a two-day increase for urgent elective surgeries, with the median waiting time sitting at 10 days in 2020-21.
Shellharbour Hospital bucked the trend however, and saw the median waiting time for non-urgent surgeries drop from 348 in 2019-20 to 319.
For semi-urgent surgery this grew by two weeks to 74 days, but the median waiting time for urgent surgery remained steady at 17 days.
The AIHW data also shows waiting times for some surgeries in the Illawarra blew out significantly.
People on the list for an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction at Wollongong Hospital faced a median waiting of 334 days, an increase of 169 per cent on the 124 days the previous year.
The median waiting time for varicose vein treatment, meanwhile, more than quadrupled: it rose from 59 days in 2019-20 to 251 the following year.
At Shellharbour Hospital, patients who needed a rotator cuff repaired saw the median waiting time double from 154 days to 310 days in 2020-21.
But the waiting time for hysterectomies dropped slightly, from 323 to 317 days, while the blepharoplasty waiting time fell from 338 days to 275.
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Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
