Complaining to a local MP and the Southern District Health Board commissioner appears to have paid off for Dunedin man Russell Lippert, but he is worried about other patients whose orthopaedic surgery has been postponed.
Mr Lippert (72) has the ‘‘guilt factor'' after being reinstated to the guaranteed surgery list after sending letters of complaint.
Some orthopaedic surgery patients, who had been told they would get their operation within four months, received letters last month citing a "temporary reduction in our capacity'' at Dunedin Hospital.
This week, the board said the department was back to full consultant staffing and was clearing the backlog of orthopaedic patients.
It could not say how many were affected.
The letters shunt patients into "active review'', with no guaranteed timeframe for surgery.
They would be reviewed in four months, if not sooner.
A second postponed orthopaedic patient spoken to this week declined to be named.
Mr Lippert said he had been deeply disappointed to receive the letter late last month, as he had had pre-operative tests, and expected a letter any day confirming his surgery date.
Upset at the change of plan, Mr Lippert wrote to commissioner Kathy Grant and National list MP Michael Woodhouse on February 12.
He was rung by a board manager on February 18 and told he was assured surgery within four months.
"I don't presume to be the worst by any means or to have any more right to it than anyone else but it's just the whole system,'' he said.
The deterioration in his right hip happened rapidly over the past year; he had been very active until then.
"When I got that note ... it was bloody awful.
"I'm not going to just lie down and not challenge the thing.''
Mr Lippert is worried about other older people who will not challenge the system.
Thinking about it gave him the "guilt factor'', as he knew "so many other people'' whose surgery had been put off at Dunedin Hospital in recent years - and sometimes they never got back on the list.
Dunedin Hospital needed more money from the Government, he said.
Hospital staff did a wonderful job, but money was being wasted on public relations staff, Mr Lippert said.
In his letter to Mrs Grant, Mr Lippert said he had considered organising a "hobble march'' to highlight the number of people needing surgery.
Mr Lippert's documents show Mr Woodhouse's office emailed health board chief executive Carole Heatly asking how the surgery delay could be justified.
In response to a question from the Otago Daily Times, the board said the department had been temporarily short-staffed but was back to full consultant staffing.
"The orthopaedic service at Dunedin Hospital has had a temporary reduction in capacity as a consequence of a delay between staff exit and entry, which can happen when recruiting.''
Long-serving surgeon John Matheson retired from the department at the end of November, and the ODT understands orthopaedic surgeon Jean-Claude Theis is on study leave for three months.
