A REVIEW has been ordered into finding out why more than 24,000 patients have been cut from Cairns Hospital’s specialist outpatient waiting list before any were able to see a doctor.
A health union official says it is “inevitable” more patients have been cut from the list without being told.
The Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service has ordered the audit into 24,149 people removed from the list between November 2013 and October 2014, prior to a specialist’s appointment
The Cairns Post reported yesterday that CHHHS had apologised to Gordonvale resident Vivian Lewis for dumping her from the list after a six-month wait, despite her needing a colonoscopy.
Ms Lewis had been told by hospital staff her appointment was deemed “unnecessary.”
As of October 7, there were 17,085 people waiting to see a specialist through the Far North’s public health system.
Patients deemed by the health service to no longer require an appointment can be struck off the list, as can those who seek treatment elsewhere, those who fail to attend a clinic, and those who do not respond to audit measures.
CHHHS chief executive Julie Hartley-Jones said as a result of Ms Lewis’ incident, she had yesterday requested an audit of those patients who had been mistakenly removed from the list, to ensure their GP had been contacted.
In the past 12 months, 103,073 patients had been seen by specialists at Cairns Hospital, including 68,015 existing patients in need of a review and 35,058 new patients.
Ms Hartley-Jones said one of the biggest problems faced by the health service in reducing the outpatient wait list was the number of patients who failed to attend appointments.
“On average, about 13 per cent of new patients are failing to attend scheduled appointments,’’ she said.
“This is equivalent to about 1250 missed appointments each month. If the hospital isn’t informed a patient cannot make their scheduled appointment, it cannot be assigned to someone else.
“It is important to understand that patients on the outpatient wait list remain under the care of their primary healthcare provider.
“Additionally, being referred to the outpatient wait list does not guarantee an appointment with a specialist.”
The health service has been allocated $2 million as part of a joint project with the Department of Health to reduce the number of patients on its outpatient wait list.
Ms Hartley-Jones said a key element of the project would be to standardise procedures to ensure patients were not mistakenly removed from the waiting list again.
Dr Sandy Donald from Together Union said it was “absolutely inevitable” many patients had been cut from the waiting list without realising it.
“I did have a member working in the Torres Strait who did say that they had been approached by three patients in two weeks who had letters,’’ he said.
“The hospital has been doing an audit of the list and said they had a limited amount of time to contact the hospital or they’ll be taken off.
“These people had received that letter after the last date to contact the hospital.
“When they tried to ring the number – one tried 12 times – they could not get through.”
Source: Cairns Post