Wed Feb 23,12:09 PM ET
SYDNEY (AFP) - A leading Australian surgeon has resigned from a Sydney hospital in protest at lengthy surgery waiting lists that he said had resulted in patient deaths.
David Morris said he resigned last month as divisional director at St George Hospital because he believed it was wrong to make patients wait up to six months for an operation.
"The thing that I felt was something I really couldn't cope with, was the length of time our cancer patients were waiting," he said.
"I basically only operate on cancer and we have got patients with liver cancer waiting three months before their surgery," he said.
"For the more complex procedure of peritonectomy, we currently have people waiting six months and I don't think those waiting times are appropriate."
Morris, who went public with his protest in an interview published Wednesday in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, later told reporters he decided to act following the death of two people who had been waiting for treatment.
And he said more people on waiting lists for cancer treatment such as mesothelioma and pseudomyxoma peritonei would die unless a solution was found to the chronic waiting list problem.
Morris received support Wednesday from the head of the Australian Medical Association, Bill Glasson, who said other doctors across Australia had also quit hospital positions in disgust at the long waiting lists for treatment.
"In frustration at seeing these people languishing on waiting lists doctors say 'I can't stand it, I'm out of here' because you feel responsible for the list'," he said.
Glasson said the problem was not a shortage of doctors, but of facilities and funding.
"There are teams of surgeons and nurses who stand around waiting to have access to theaters," he said.
State health authorities said they would investigate Morris' claims that patients had died due to delays obtaining surgery. |