Hernia patient waits no longer
A RETIREE facing a two-year wait for a surgical specialist's appointment at Cairns Base Hospital has switched to the Townsville Hospital group - and will be seen next week.
Barry Wicks, 74, is on four painkillers a day for a trapped navel hernia but is still in constant pain and suffers from nausea when he eats.
Doctors have said he needs surgery.
But Cairns Base Hospital staff cannot fit him in for a pre-surgery specialist's appointment for another 18 months to two years because of a massive patient backlog.
"I thought I might die before I ended up under the knife," the fed-up 74-year-old said yesterday.
"My life's on hold -I can' sit at my computer or in my car for too long, the only real relief is lying flat and I'vbeen told it could get much more serious if my bowel becomes trapped in the hernia."
Mr Wicks went back to his doctor, in the small town of Cardwell south of Tully, and was transferred to the Townsville Hospital group.
He will see a visiting surgical specialist at nearby Ingham Hospital next Wednesday and has been told to pack a bag in case the operation goes ahead hours later.
The long-suffering retiree said he was relieved to have escaped a "two-year sentence".
"I really don' know how I could have held out that long … it' scandalous," he said of the Cairns Base Hospital's surgery backlog.
A Townsville Hospital spokesperson yesterday said no category two patient had waited longer than the recommended 90 days for their "non-urgent elective surgery" in the June quarter.
But a Cairns Base Hospital spokesman confirmed two-year waits for a surgical specialist appointment were "the norm" for category two patients, with a wait of up to three extra months for surgery.
"We are very, very busy," the spokesman said, adding the hospital was trying to recruit a new full-time surgical specialist.
Category one patients could wait up to two months for a specialist's appointment, while less urgent category three patients were in for a two to three-year wait, he said.
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Relief at last: Cardwell retiree Barry Wicks was facing a two-year wait for a surgical appointment in Cairns, but now will see a Townsville surgeon next week.
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