Two-in-five Canberra patients waiting for urology surgeries are overdue, the Health Minister says.
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Rachel Stephen-Smith said the long waiting list for urology operations was caused by a fire at North Canberra Hospital, then known as Calvary Public, in December 2022.
As of October 16, there were 572 patients waiting for urology surgery in the ACT, with 230 overdue.
Of those, 466 were to have surgery at North Canberra Hospital, 80 at Canberra Hospital, and 26 through territory-wide surgical services.
Urology refers to the treatment of the kidneys, bladder, prostate and male reproductive organs.
About 80 per cent of the ACT's urology operations are performed at North Canberra Hospital, Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Elective surgeries done in time, 2022-23
- Urgent (30 days): 84 per cent
- Semi-urgent (90 days): 41 per cent
- Non-urgent (365 days): 61 per cent
"It's around 2000 cases a year normally. And so that was very significantly disrupted by the theatre fires and the loss of some vital equipment, which has obviously now been replaced and the theaters are now open," she said.
"Normal services are resuming and North Canberra Hospital will be getting through that."
More than 2000 patients waited longer for surgery than clinically recommended in the 2022-23 financial year.
The minister has previously said elective surgery wait-times were impacted by the operating theatre fires. An elective surgery is any that is not an emergency.
- Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified "urology" as "neurology".
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![ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith. Picture by Gary Ramage ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith. Picture by Gary Ramage](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/3BUUzmFAhrhLyX9rFCubPq5/f3773c07-865d-4df9-afa1-fe30bbea4206.jpg/r0_204_4000_2462_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)