16 surgery patients left waiting after Sydney hospital's referral inbox ignored
An unmonitored inbox containing more than 3000 emails, including referrals, meant 16 patients at Canterbury Hospital were overdue for urgent or semi-urgent surgeries.
Canterbury Hospital in Sydney urgently contacted patients whose surgery referrals were stuck in an unmonitored inbox for months. A review found 16 overdue patients: four categorised as urgent, waiting over 30 days for surgery, and 12 categorised as semi-urgent, waiting over 90 days.
The hospital has now scheduled urgent admission dates and three patients have already had their procedures. Doctors aware of the matter blamed understaffing in administrative offices and poor management oversight.
The Sydney Local Health District apologised to patients and families. Specialist surgeons have raised concerns that public hospitals manipulate waitlist data to meet government benchmarks.
- More than 3000
- Emails in unmonitored inbox
- 4 (Category 1)
- Overdue urgent patients
- 12 (Category 2)
- Overdue semi-urgent patients
- 3
- Patients who had surgery after discovery
Why it mattersPatients at risk of harm from system failures; raises questions about how Australian public hospitals manage patient safety and report performance data.
AustraliaDirectly affects patients waiting for surgery in NSW; highlights staffing and oversight problems in Sydney hospitals amid broader elective surgery delays.
Corroborated bytheage.com.au·watoday.com.au
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 1 h ago
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