The Free State Department of Health is still faced with a backlog of orthopaedic surgeries. Currently the provincial backlog stands at 976, from 1 923 during July and August last year.
The backlog was reduced to the current number after a team of specialist surgeons at the Bongani Regional Hospital in Welkom successfully performed 20 surgeries.
The surgeries took place on 11 and 12 November and were performed during a second session this year, with the first performed in January.
Mondli Mvambi, spokesperson for the department, said the surgeries were a result of the team effort made by cleaners and nurses, as well as medical officers.
He said the team volunteered to perform the surgeries.
“In order to bring down the number of orthopaedic surgeries, many health facilities resort to embarking on orthopaedic marathons where they gather medical experts and financial resources and perform many of these procedures over a weekend or a week.
“Since September 2021, the Bongani Hospital has performed 13 orthopaedic marathon surgeries to restore the dignity of orthopaedic patients and improve their quality of life,” said Mvambi.
He said the latest 20 surgeries added to the more than 750 surgeries performed since April this year.
The Pelonomi Hospital and Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein, and the Dihlabeng Regional Hospital, have the largest backlog in comparison to all the hospitals dedicated to performing surgeries.
Specifically, the backlog is 364 for Pelonomi and 194 for Universitas, while at Dihlabeng it stands at 330.
“South Africa in general, and the Free State in particular, are known to have high levels of trauma as a result of road accidents and violence, amongst many causes. The healthcare system gets overwhelmed by these factors.
“There are many orthopaedic cases where people presented themselves with broken ankles from no serious exertion of any sort.
“Cases cause serious backlogs in the healthcare system, lead to hospitals being overwhelmed and patients spending many days, to months, waiting to be operated on,” said Mvambi.
He said emergency surgeries were related to cases of trauma, such as injuries due to violence, motor vehicle accidents, gunshot and stab wounds.
Severe shortages in orthopaedic services had initially been blamed for the backlogs, resulting in the growing list of patients.
