The 65-year-old Dunedin resident, who did not wish to be named, said he and others waiting the average 449 days for knee replacement surgery had to deal with plunging quality of life and little communication.
"I’m bone-on-bone in both knees, but then on top of this, it’s the mental anguish," he said.
Others would also be waiting in pain, with no quality of life, he said.
His battle with Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) Southern to find out more about the situation had been massively frustrating.
Late last March he had been assessed for surgery, and in mid-May he received a letter informing him he had been placed on the waiting list.
HNZ was unable to tell him when the surgery would be and promised to keep in touch while he remained on the waiting list, the letter said.
However, his questions had not been answered until he requested information under the Official Information Act, while the waiting list letter was one of just two he ever received from Dunedin Hospital’s orthopaedic service.
The second was sent a year later, informing him he was due for surgery this July, about 16 months after his assessment.
Data provided to the Otago Daily Times shows others waiting a similar length of time.
A total of 264 people were on the Dunedin waiting list for knee replacements in June 2023.
The average time they waited for the operation was 449 days.
Between January 1 and June 12 last year, 93 knee replacements were carried out in the Southern area.
This included 51 at Dunedin Hospital and 13 at Southland Hospital.
A further 29 were outsourced to private providers — Mercy Hospital, Southern Cross Central Lakes Hospital and Southern Cross Hospital Invercargill.
The health system also outsourced 95 knee operations to Mercy and Southern Cross last year, and 56 in 2021.
HNZ correspondence last November showed patients waiting more than a year in Southern could also be transferred to South Canterbury for treatment.
The man questioned how other places such as Timaru could run efficiently, yet it seemed Southern could not.
"Where are we getting any value for our taxpayer money?"
"There should be some accountability, but there isn’t — there’s no communication to the public."
Those on waiting lists were thrown back to their GPs, but there was little GPs could do, he said.
His GP had recommended him for physiotherapy, which the hospital declined.
HNZ Southern recently announced plans to start including a time estimate in letters informing people they had been waitlisted, as reported by the ODT last week.
It acknowledged it did not do this at present.
However, the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights included the right to "advice of the estimated time within which the services will be provided".
This and Southern’s own code of conduct should mean waiting times were already provided, the man said.
"They’ve been abusing it ... it’s just terrible because they’re admitting that they haven’t done it."
HNZ did not answer questions about waiting list issues and current wait times last week.
