Several southern specialties have managed to reduce the number of patients who have waited longer than the recommended time before receiving their procedure.
Almost every specialist service provided in Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand Southern (HNZS) hospitals has breaches — patients, sometimes in high numbers, who have waited longer than the target time either for an appointment or a procedure.
However, since a peak in April when more than 2500 patients were in breach of the three-month target for a procedure to be carried out after a promise to treat, clinicians have managed to reduce breaches to 1952, from a total of 4263 on waiting lists.
Orthopaedics, long the department with the largest waiting lists, reduced its number of patients in breach by 81, figures released to the Otago Daily Times under the Official Information Act said.
Ear, nose and throat reduced its breaches by 62, urology by 31 and gynaecology by 26.
HNZS interim district director Hamish Brown said the organisation was continuing to outsource some planned care surgery, particularly patients who had been waiting the longest.
A new ENT surgeon had also started in Southland in August, which had reduced breaches for that specialty there.
"The number of cancellations due to acute pressure has decreased ... but remains a constant challenge," Mr Brown said.
"The clinical teams have been able to concentrate on day cases and some of these have been patients that have waited for long periods of time."
Health Minister Andrew Little had promised HNZ would prioritise cutting waiting lists, and recently it released the recommendations of a planned care task force to tackle a problem which had already been serious but which was exacerbated by Covid-19-driven ward closures and staff and patient illness.
"Work is already under way to prioritise the people who have been waiting the longest, over 365 days, for planned care," Mr Brown said.
"This work is a multi-year programme of work designed to build a more resilient, clinically consistent and equitable planned care service.
"The work will take time to bed-in across the country and as system pressures ease, we expect to see more progress."
Most other southern specialties recorded minor fluctuations in surgical wait lists.
However, there had been little change for those awaiting a first specialist appointment.
As at October 31,1879 people had waited longer than three months for their appointment, a figure which has remained practically static in recent times.
