Women fall pregnant as sterilisation operations delayed

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX

South Auckland women waiting 18 months to be sterilised at Middlemore Hospital are getting pregnant in the meantime and the Ministry of Health blames the hospital management.

The ministry has called the situation a "performance issue" due to unsatisfactory management and says Middlemore has to work harder to get rid of the waiting lists.

But Middlemore chief medical officer Dr Ian Brown says that would not be the case if the Government paid for the procedure separately to other gynaecological operations.

South Auckland midwife Adrienne Priday wrote to the Counties Manukau District Health Board - which runs Middlemore - in February after becoming aware that several of her clients had been waiting 18 months to have tubal ligations.

She said that in many cases women she had referred to doctors for sterilisation were booking her midwifery service months later - some pregnant with their sixth, seventh or even 10th child.

Dr Brown said he agreed with Ms Priday's concerns but the tubal ligation operations were paid for from the same pool of money as all other gynaecological operations.

"When you have to choose between cancer treatment and treatment for severe pain, tubal ligation unfortunately does not come out as the most urgently required surgery."

The ministry's elective services policy manager, Dr Andrew Holmes, said yesterday that it was up to health boards to use their discretion to manage the health services they provided, and paying for ligations separately would "interfere with this discretion."