Government Plans failing: 1,044 waiting for Surgery, 59 Operations cancelled for lack of beds

The GSD is very disappointed that despite the much heralded announcement of the opening of Calpe Ward and the increase in domiciliary care, which according to Dr Cortes would bring an end to cancellation of surgery due to bed shortages, the number of operations cancelled solely in the last four months due to unavailability of beds is the same as the number cancelled in the whole of 2007, 59.   The number of acute beds occupied by long-stay elderly and complex cases awaiting transfer to the Care Agency is back up to 80, despite a temporary dip to 66 last September.  Similarly disappointing is the fact that the number of people on the GHA operations waiting list has increased by 163 since the GSLP took office in December 2011, and now stands at a staggering 1,044, representing an increase of 14%. 

The Government’s prediction that it would: “Reduce all surgical waiting lists in all disciplines” and Dr Cortes’ statement in Parliament eight months ago of: “I am actively working with management and professionals to try and cut this waiting list drastically”, has sadly not produced results.  Dr Cortes responded to questions in May’s Parliament session saying: “it is not the number of people on these lists, but how long they wait”, an answer which is juxtaposed to the Government’s policy when in Opposition, which saw Minister Costa relentlessly making a huge issue about 932 people awaiting surgery.

The Opposition is concerned that if this trend is not urgently addressed, we could potentially reach an all time high in operations cancelled in a year due to bed shortages.  It would be wise for Dr Cortes to remember Minister Neil Costa’s words only a few months before they came into office: “For as long as any operation is cancelled due to a bed shortage, we will continue to give stick over that because it is not acceptable that an operation be cancelled due to a bed shortage.  In some cases it allows the health of that person to deteriorate and that is not at all acceptable”.  The Opposition wonders whether Minister Costa will now have the same concern about this issue as he had in 2011 and will therefore chastise his ministerial colleague in the same vociferous manner that he used to continuously “give stick” to the then Minister for Health, when he was Opposition Spokesman for health.

The ‘cancelled operations’ information for 2013, which has still not been made available on the Government website, was obtained from questions by Isobel Ellul-Hammond to Parliament, and the information is as follows:

January 2013 – 22 cancelled operations due to unavailability of beds,

February 2013 – 10 cancelled operations due to unavailability of beds,

March 2013 – 16 cancelled operations due to unavailability of beds,

April 2013 – 11 cancelled operations due to unavailability of beds. 

Commenting on the matter, Opposition Spokesman for Health, Isobel Ellul-Hammond said: “It is clear that Dr Cortes’ initiatives, which he announced with so much fanfare, have sadly failed to resolve the problem of cancellation of surgery due to bed shortages, as he said he would, or reduce the number of those waiting for surgery.”