3294 operations were cancelled at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital from January 2018 to end-September this year.
This has been revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.
The reasons for cancellation were as follows:
- Overbooking – 1262
- Shortage of ICU beds – 926
- Patient related – 559
- Shortage of consumables – 210
- Equipment related – 115
- Infrastructure related – 312
Most of these factors are avoidable, caused by poor management that overbooks patients or fails to ensure working machinery and surgical supplies. The shortage of ICU beds for post-operative recovery is also of concern.
The high number of cancellations is distressing for both patients and staff and worsens the long waiting times for surgery – more than 6000 patients currently wait more than six months for surgery at this hospital.
According to Masuku, the following steps are being taken to reduce cancelled operations:
- Improving booking systems, indicating the operating time.
- Creating ward 7 High Care dependency for surgical department = 22
- Performing some of the operations in cluster hospitals.
- Saturday elective list (Extra list).
- Extending arthroplasty list to 7 to 7 during the week.
- Strengthening of cluster systems and outreach.
I hope that better management cuts the unacceptably high cancellation of operations at this major hospital.