By JULIE MIDDLETON
Children kept waiting for urgent spinal surgery at Auckland's Starship children's hospital will get their operations in a Government-brokered plan developed by hospital chiefs and surgeons.
The plight of 54 children on the waiting list was highlighted by Jasmine Craven, aged 9, who featured in the Herald last month after she was told she would have to wait two more years for a vital operation to correct the curvature of her spine.
Jasmine, who had already been waiting a year for the four-hour operation, was told that because of the extra delay the surgery could take three times as long and could possibly kill her.
Now she has been promised that within four weeks she will have the operation that will let her eat and breathe properly again.
She is one of up to 54 children on Starship's spinal surgery waiting list.
The backlog has been blamed on a lack of intensive-care beds and nurses, problems with a spinal monitor, scheduling problems and lack of planning.
Prompted by Jasmine's story, Health Minister Annette King set up a meeting with hospital chiefs and Starship's two spine surgeons, Michael Barnes and Haemish Crawford, last Monday.
The meeting set a list of 12 action points, one of which involves Starship paying the private Mercy Hospital to take some of the children.
Others aim to reduce the likelihood of operations being cancelled because of a shortage of children's intensive-care beds.
Starship general manager Rex Paddy said another move already being done was to transfer older children to critical care at Auckland Hospital after their surgery.
But waiting lists would not disappear quickly, he said.
"You're not going to see an amazing sudden change to the waiting lists - it will come down slowly. We're doing our best and I believe that we are making progress."
Mrs King was more upbeat.
"I believe we're going to see some real improvements in the next three months - a reduction in the children waiting, and, coming in to summer, even more progress made.
"I'm going to keep a close watch on it."
Mr Barnes said if there were no cancellations the two spine surgeons could perform 75 operations a year using Starship and Mercy theatres.
Starship's problems meant that this year he had done only seven.
The waiting list was now 54, and about 35 children were added to it every year.
Mr Paddy described Mrs King's intervention as very helpful.
"Her being there meant that the various people involved could get together and talk to each other."
Mrs King said she did not go to the Starship meeting with a big stick. "I went to talk about a way we could resolve the problems," she said.
Jasmine, of Henderson in West Auckland, has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and scoliosis - curvature of the spine.
Her mother, Julie, is delighted that her daughter's agonising wait is drawing to an end.
"It's a load off my mind," she said.
"And all the other kids on the waiting list are getting something done as well."
But until Jasmine was on an operating table, she said, she would not quite believe the news was true: "It's hearsay at the moment."
Jasmine could not see, eat or breathe properly, was susceptible to pneumonia, and her bent back was harming one hip.
Mr Barnes said that the longer operations were delayed, the more complicated and life-threatening they became.
Faster surgery for kids
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