Dr Altaf Hussain, Welsh Conservative AM for South Wales West and retired Consultant orthopaedic surgeon, spoke out in anger at the news that nearly 6,500 patients remain on the waiting list for surgery at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital.
Altaf said:
“Having worked in the NHS in Wales as an orthopaedic surgeon, the figures from Morriston Hospital unearthed by Byron Davies today cause me massive concern. Behind the numbers lies a tragic human story where wonderfully committed staff face a daily struggle uphill to provide the level of care they would like to, with patients’ everyday lives on hold whilst waiting for vital treatment. They are paying the price for the lack of organisational leadership that is clearly endemic within the ABMU Health Board.
“I am especially worried that nearly 3,200 patients remain on the waiting list for Trauma & Orthopaedics. To put these figures into context: one Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon, working at full capacity performing four hip or knee replacement procedures a day, five days a week, would take over three years to clear this massive bottle-neck.”
He added: “Clinical governance is very obviously a huge issue. The board of ABMU talk about ‘winter pressures’, as though these are somehow exceptional and cannot be predicted. All too sadly, these happen every year, with the same predictable and lamentable excuses forthcoming. What is needed is a full clerical audit, which makes seeking and responding to the views of patients and frontline staff a major priority. We also need to look very closely as to how social care provisions on discharge are handled, and whether this would benefit from a top-to-bottom review. This could go a huge way toward addressing the shortage of beds we face, where have so many instances of bed-blocking which appear avoidable”.
He described the news that no elective surgery had been carried out for four months as “clinically lamentable”, citing his own experience as a surgeon to highlight how the problems created by ‘bottlenecks’ can snowball. He said, “It is strongly advisable that individual clinicians operate in their specialist field regularly. This ensures their skills remain up to date, and has huge relevance for the safety of patients. From what is evidenced here, there is the imminent risk that this may not happen, forcing experienced surgeons to undertake private sector work - which they may not otherwise be minded to– in order to maintain their competence to operate. This can divert resources away from where they are most needed - all because of poor management. Unless urgent changes are made, there seems to be a real risk that the service could implode”.