A SHOCKING total of 800 residents forms the waiting list for elective surgery in Mildura amid a “dire” shortage of specialist treatment in north-west Victoria due to border closures.
As elective surgery resumes in regional Victoria this week, Sunraysia Daily can also reveal that waiting times for many common procedures has blown out to two years.
Member for Mallee Anne Webster has made an impassioned plea to South Australian Premier Steven Marshall to allow eight health care specialists to cross the border to treat “the most pressing cases” in Mildura.
In a letter to Mr Marshall dated September 15, Dr Webster said Mildura was “reliant” on SA’s specialist health services to help back up Victorian public and private systems.
“We have been without specialist care in Mildura for five months and in that time we have not had any COVID cases,” Dr Webster wrote.
“This has resulted in around 800 people living in pain, discomfort and dysfunction. And countless others who have given up trying to seek help.”
According to Dr Webster, SA eye surgeon Dr Arthur Karagiannis is carrying the biggest backlog of 220 local patients. This included 10 full-day theatre visits, she said.
She also cites an SA dentist, Dr Tony Mavrokokki, who has 40 local patients who will require 10 half-day sessions in Mildura.
In her letter to Mr Marshall, Dr Webster says 400 people had deferred elective surgery since March at Mildura Health Private Hospital.
“And there are another 400 in Mildura who are in pre-workups. These are locals just sitting on the waiting list,” Dr Webster told the Daily this week.
“This is a huge number of people for a community the size of Mildura. It’s appalling that it’s been allowed to get to this point.
“Eight specialist doctors not coming to Mildura for five months because of a border closure without scientific basis — that’s a disastrous situation.
“These same doctors, mind you, have been granted approval for going to Broken Hill, which has the same number of COVID cases as we do (zero).
“It’s not good enough and I’ve spoken with (Federal Health Minister) Greg Hunt about this on a number of occasions, and he’s got involved now.”
The staggering number of local residents on the waiting list are part of a large backlog of about 60,000 Victorians waiting for elective surgery across the state.
Locally, the most pressing cases include people requiring eye surgery and others needing hip or knee replacements.
“There are two people that, every six weeks or so, need 20 injections around their eyes for a horrible condition they’ve got,” Dr Webster said. “And they are in real pain.
“You’ve also got people requiring knee and hip surgeries. And then you’ve got big delays for (removal of) wisdom teeth. The waiting list for this is out to about two years.
“And there’s so many more on the list of those waiting for surgery that makes the situation so dire for locals.”
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews this week apologised for the lengthy delays in elective surgery.
Next week he will front the official inquiry into Victoria’s ill-fated hotel quarantine program to answer questions about its failures.
“I do, again, apologise to those who have had to wait for their surgery, but the nature of this pandemic, we had to create capacity for aged-care residents who potentially needed to come into hospital,” he said.
The Daily asked Mr Marshall’s office for a response to Dr Webster’s pleas, but the questions were forwarded to SA Health.
In a statement, SA Health said: “Travel exemptions are considered on a case-by-case basis and take account of local epidemiology including evidence of community transmission.
“We have granted a number of travel exemptions for health care workers taking into account factors such as clinical urgency, location of work and plans for risk mitigation.”
