Elsie Lange
In the four years Brendan Thorneloe has waited to have his hip replaced, he’s felt himself slipping away from the world.
The 57-year-old Sunbury resident was a truck driver and labourer before he had to stop working in 2018 due to the excruciating pain.
He said he was put on the category two elective surgery waiting list at Western Health back then, but still has no idea when he’ll be treated.
“I’m fed up. I just want it fixed,” he said.
“I just want to go back to work.”
Since then, his sense of isolation has steadily increased – even doing the shopping is hard some days – so catching up with friends and fostering relationships is difficult when he’s in pain all the time.
“In 2021, just before we were locked down again, there was preparation for me to get it done. But as soon as the lockdown came in, it was called off,” he said.
“It’s debilitating some days. Some days it’s good depending on the weather.”
Mr Thorneloe is emblematic of the elective surgery backlog, which the Australian Medical Association (AMA) said is expected to reach more than 500,000 by June this year “if no action is taken by governments”.
AMA president Professor Steve Robson said the country needs a national plan to address the backlog, with “an immediate injection of funds required”.
“The AMA is calling for a new funding agreement between the state and territories and the Commonwealth that includes an upfront advance payment provided by the Commonwealth to support state and territory governments to expand their capacity (including workforce) to address the elective surgery backlog,” the AMA said.
Professor Robson said there also needed to be more data on waiting lists reported more regularly and transparently.
According to Victorian Agency for Health Information data, as of September 2022 the wait list for category two elective surgeries at Western Health was 3400 patients long across Footscray, Sunshine, Sunbury and Williamstown hospitals.
While Western Health could not comment on Mr Thorneloe’s individual situation due to confidentiality, acting chief operating officer Jason Plant said they would continue working with the Department of Health on the management of patients on the planned surgery wait list.
“As part of the state government’s COVID Catch-Up Plan, we have completed an additional 400 cases and collaborated with private hospitals to perform surgeries for 179 Western Health patients,” he said.
On Friday, January 27, after Star Weekly raised Mr Thorneloe’s case with the health service, he said he received a call to arrange an appointment to discuss his concerns, though a date as not yet been set.
