COMMUNICATIONS

Canterbury Surgical Patients Benefit From Funding Boost

An additional 975 surgery patients will be treated in the next four months by Canterbury District Health Board as a result of an extra $3.2 million in government funding provided to the Board this financial year and a further $1 million allocated to elective services by the CDHB. The first of these operations will be performed this month

This money is an addition to an extra $1.7 million that has been spent by the CDHB on treating people who were last year returned to GP care from the CDHB booking system.

The government money is part of a package of $200 million over four years, which will see extra operations performed in Canterbury for patients with a wide range of diseases and conditions. Nationally, the funding boost is expected to increase elective treatment capacity by around 10,000 people each year over the next four years.

In Canterbury, this financial year, 113 more patients will get the general surgery they need, including people waiting for abdominal and thyroid surgery. Other operations involve a range of specialties. About 220 people will have a colonoscopy and 41 will get access to cardiology procedures. Another 110 women will benefit from gynaecological procedures and about 42 men from prostate and other urology operations. A total of 66 children will receive the dental surgery that they need and 132 adults and children will be able to have their tonsils and/or adenoids removed. A total of 95 orthopaedic procedures other than hip and knee replacements are scheduled.

”We are delighted to be able to offer these extra operations to Canterbury people. As well as being a bonus for our patients, it will be very rewarding time for front line staff in providing more treatment for people who need it,” CDHB CEO Gordon Davies said.

The additional operations will be performed within CDHB hospitals and by a number of private providers including Southern Cross Hospital, St George’s Hospital, Oxford Clinic Hospital and Canterbury Orthopaedic Services. About 459 of the additional operations will be performed privately as CDHB services generally work at full capacity and do not have the resources for large numbers of additional operations.

The government funding for the additional operations has been made available to DHBs that are compliant with the national electives policy, which says that people need to know whether they will be able to see a specialist within six months and whether they will receive their operation.

“This system is about providing patients with clarity, timeliness and fairness around when and if they will receive treatment. Not everyone will meet the threshold for surgery on their first presentation and we need to be open and honest about this,” Mr Davies said.

ENDS