Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson ‘sorry for circumstances’ after woman’s gynaecological surgery delay

Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson says she is “sorry for the circumstances” of a Rockingham woman whose years-long wait to address chronic pelvic pain means she now needs major surgery — but the minister told parliament that WA still had one of the world’s “best health systems”. The West revealed this week that Shelley French waited for three years for a gynaecologist appointment through the public health system, before finally going private where she was told she needed immediate surgery to remove her ovaries. Ms French, 50, had the surgery in March, but only her left ovary was removed because a cyst on her right ovary had fused to her kidney, bladder and bowel. The terrified and angered patient is now “in limbo” as she waits six weeks for a check up with her private specialist and fears she could lose a kidney, part of her bowel or her bladder. In her years-long wait, she received multiple referrals to see a specialist, but because no appointment eventuated, Ms French was never officially on the wait list. Liberal leader Libby Mettam described the backlog to see a specialist — before a patient can be put on a wait list for surgery — as a “hidden waitlist” and on Tuesday asked the minister in parliament how the public could “remain confident” in her if she did not acknowledge the existence of such a waitlist. Ms Sanderson said Ms French had faced “really challenging circumstances” and appeared to have been “bounced around by general practitioners a number of times”. The minister said GPs were critical in referring people to specialists based on the needs of the patient and that patients needed to inform their GP if their circumstances had changed so that they could be “re-triaged and reassessed”. “I am pleased that once (Ms French) contacted the hospital to say her circumstances had changed, they were able to bring that (surgery) forward,” Ms Sanderson said. “I’m sorry for the circumstances that this lady finds herself in, they are clearly challenging. “She has been treated in one of the best health systems in the world that continues to support her in her treatment journey and the Government continues to invest in staff and infrastructure to close those elective surgery waiting times.” The minister said the Cook and McGowan Governments had delivered an additional 550 hospital beds, 4000 more nurses and 1600 more doctors — or a 30 per cent increase in staffing capacity. “We are actually performing a record number of elective surgeries at this time. Last year we broke the record for the most elective surgeries delivered in a single month,” Ms Sanderson said. The minister said during COVID gynaecological services — unlike many other outpatient services — could not occur virtually and had to be delayed. But she said the Government had since invested to address the pandemic-related backlog and said the Women and Babies Hospital — which the Government has relocated from Nedlands to Fiona Stanley — would provide a tertiary specialist location for women to be treated for gynaecological conditions.