Garry Marshall, whose wife is due elective surgery, said his complaint was not with Dunedin Hospital staff, who were very professional, but with the lack of transparency from Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora Southern (HNZ Southern) about how long patients had to wait.
"They know it could take anywhere from four months to a year and a-half, and they’re not upfront with us from the start."
When approached yesterday, HNZ Southern said it was still working on a solution, which should be ready for outpatients early this year.
It remained "committed to improving communication".
Mr Marshall, of Oamaru, said HNZ Southern needed to honour its promise in July 2024 to include estimated waiting times in letters notifying people they have been placed on a surgery waiting list.
His comments come not long after the release of figures by HNZ, which showed only 54% of Southern patients waited less than four months for elective treatment, the worst-performing health region in the country for this metric.
Many patients relayed their horror stories to the Otago Daily Times, including a 5-year-old’s 10-month wait for elective dental surgery, a patient waiting 18 months for surgery on a bulged disc in their back and another still being on a waiting list for a hysterectomy after almost a year.
Mr Marshall said these issues could be addressed by allocating more resources to hospitals.
But there also needed to be honesty and transparency.
"With issues such as letting the patient know about waiting times, they’re dragging the chain.
"It’s almost as if they’ve kicked the can down the road and decided it’s too difficult."
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists chief executive Sarah Dalton said clinicians wanted patients to have more information about their waiting times, but in some cases, management rejected the idea.
"We really think that clear communication with patients ... is critical, particularly where there is resource constraints and limitation.
"Patients need to know what a safe waiting time is as well as what an actual waiting time is likely to be."
Ms Dalton said it needed HNZ to take responsibility for this aspect, instead of devolving it to the clinicians and hospital staff, who were already overworked.
"I think there should be standard information that is available for patients that tells them both what the optimal or recommended waiting times are and whether or not they’re going to be seen within those recommended waiting times."
New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) president Anne Daniels said the information needed to be distributed, but this would require resourcing.
Health Minister Simeon Brown had often stated he wanted to bring certainty to processes within the health and disability system.
"So there can be no issue around providing specific timeframes," Ms Daniels said.
"To do that, of course, you need to have the resource in terms of people to deliver on the healthcare needs, appointments and the required surgery.
"And from NZNO’s perspective, it means that more healthcare providers will be needed."
HNZ Southern operations director Craig Ashton said the rollout of these letters has yet to be implemented, as HNZ had moved to a regional approach for communicating this information to patients.
"In November 2024, our patient management system was updated and is now the same as other districts in the South Island.
"We are working with these districts to establish a standard set of letters to be used across the South Island, which will reduce replication and variance."
Last year, national guidelines for both outpatients and inpatients were published and circulated to all districts nationwide, Mr Ashton said.
"These guidelines include sending letters to patients informing them of surgery wait times.
"We are working collaboratively with districts to ensure these guidelines are implemented consistently across the South Island."
The guidelines were due to be implemented for outpatients by March and for inpatients later this year.
"There will be no additional cost for this service.
"We remain committed to improving our communication to patients."
