State of the Nation - Question waiting times

I was public in SA - I had bmx with immediate recon - I think this reduced my wait times overall - so in Total I had 10 ops that were various categories 1 - 3 I think the longest I was on a list for any procedure was 6 months.

of greater concern was the time between suspect mammogram to bmx which was 4 months for a variety of reasons ... 

Hi Kirsten, I had a left skin and nipple sparing mastectomy with immediate reconstruction using silicone implant last June (2016) at Auburn public hospital. My surgeon has stated she wants at least 12 months before she looks at reduction/lift of the right breast and then fat grafting to tweak both and increase the perk factor. Initially in my ignorance I thought it would be done sooner,  but after having my implant soften incredibly in the last month or so I can totally understand why the wait. It just increases the already incredibly high esteem I hold my surgeon in. 

Kirsten_BCNA said:

Thank you all for your responses so far - this will all help in building our knowledge. So keep them coming!

@mum2jj thank you for the update on your friend - I will continue to look into the waiting times at Cairns Hospital. 

Have a great week!

KP

Thank you so much for this, she is beside herself at the thought of waiting that long.
Paula x

@Kirsten_BCNA I was a public patient at The Northern Hospital

Hi @Jane221 - sadly your out of pocket expenses are not unusual. Thank you for providing so much detail - it is very helpful in my fact finding.

HI @Cate64 - are you able to tell me if this was public or private and what hospital it was - what a great result for you.

I had an immediate DIEP reconstruction on the BC side, then 6 months later I had a prophylactic mastecomy & reconstruction (using butt tissue), I only waited about 6 weeks for it, saw the surgeon, went on list received date 2 weeks later for 4 weeks after that. 

Hi Kirsten, thank you for your efforts to understand more about this issue. I had a delayed (2yrs) after mastectomy, unilateral DIEP reconstruction in 2014 at Prince of Wales Private. I delayed my reconstruction due to uncertainty around treatment and the fact I needed some time to heal and prepare for that kind of surgery. At that time, DIEPs were not offered on the Central Coast, (where I live), so I needed to travel for this type of surgery, which was the one recommended to me by my breast surgeon (also at POW) due to skin issues / scarring from radiation. When I met with my plastic surgeon I was offered either public or private options and initially was put on the POW public private list. However, the wait was at least 365 days (Category 3) and so I decided to go private in order to be more in control of the timing and to ensure I had the surgeon I wanted. We have top level private cover but there was still a signifcant gap (around $8,000).

For the further two surgeries I required as part of the reconstruction process (1 revision/ breast lift of the other side and nipple reconstruction), I again went private, but was able to negotiate no gap. However, with the revision / breast lift and the nipple reconstruction I did have to argue with my private health insurer that it was not cosmetic surgery, but was part of the reconstructive process, which was an extremely stressful and upsetting thing to be doing. Eventually (with my surgeon's support) they agreed, but I am aware that this situation is not uncommon and may be one of the reasons that some women either forego reconstruction all together, or opt to sit on a public waiting list for years.  

Kirsten -  Does the public system have KPIs for surgeons to adhere to with public patients or is it more a case of where we can slot you in? 
I'm private and have continuity but it comes with an out of pocket expense. 

Thank you all for your responses so far - this will all help in building our knowledge. So keep them coming!

@mum2jj thank you for the update on your friend - I will continue to look into the waiting times at Cairns Hospital. 

Have a great week!

KP