Since Alex Stosic’s heart failed in 2021, everyday tasks like waking up and getting dressed take hours and require Herculean effort.
Key points:
- Stosic is one of more than 87,000 people awaiting elective surgery in Victoria
- Quarterly government statistics show waits have leveled off despite rise in emergency department presentations
- Ambulance Victoria faced its busiest quarter ever for the third time in a row
For more than a year, the normally energetic 71-year-old Frankston man, who runs his own business with his wife, has been living with his heart only working at a fifth of its usual capacity.
Earlier this year, her surgery for a new valve was considered semi-urgent, also known as category 2, which meant treatment within 90 days was recommended.
But he has been waiting for it for more than 150 days.
Since his body shut down, Alex has lost more than 30 kilos, is struggling to keep his small business running and has barely been able to see his grandchildren, who live in regional Victoria.
“I can only take about 20 or 40 steps and I have to rest a lot,” he said.
“Even working on the computer, I can really only do a few hours and then I have to rest.”
While awaiting surgery, Alex Stosic can only work on the computer in short bursts. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
Alex is usually at the tools of his small business, which specializes in removing scratches from surfaces such as glass, but since he got sick he has only been able to make beads.
“It definitely limits my lifestyle and limits what I can do,” she said.
Alex Stosic’s dog, Suzie Q, has barely left his side since she got sick. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
Alex’s poor physical health has left him and his wife Maureen mostly at home, which has taken a toll on his mental health and prevented him from seeing his three children and five grandchildren as much as before.
In Victoria, elective surgery is defined as any necessary surgery that can be delayed by at least 24 hours.
Type of surgery
Time in which treatment is required
Category 1 (urgent)
30 days
Category 2 (semi-urgent)
90 days
Category 3 (not urgent)
12 months
During the COVID-19 pandemic, elective surgery has been repeatedly halted to help the state’s health care system cope with the influx of cases, which has caused a backlog.
In early April, the Victorian government announced a $1.5 billion investment package to address this backlog, but as the latest wave of Omicron surged, individual hospitals began postponing all cases minus category 1 again.
The latest quarterly figures, published today, show that at the end of June 87,275 people were on the waiting list, slightly less than in the previous three months.
This is due in part to more than 41,000 elective surgeries performed during the quarter, nearly 50 percent more than the previous three months.
But the waiting list is dramatically higher (about 21,000 more people) than the same time last year.
As of June 30, there were 2,465 people waiting for category 1 operations and 41,824 people waiting for category 2 operations.
And while the hospital waiting list showed small signs of stabilization, other areas of the health system are under increasing pressure.
Fourth busiest at Ambulance Victoria during ‘unprecedented’ demand.
The quarterly data, released by the government a week later than expected, showed hospital emergency department presentations had risen 5.1 percent in the three months to June 30.
That brought the number to 486,701 emergency presentations, an increase of more than 23,000 over the last quarter.
The increase is attributed to a number of factors, including COVID-19, deferred attention from lockdowns and a more severe flu season than in previous years.
“What we’re seeing in Victoria right now is unprecedented demand,” Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said.
The average hospital stay also increased, with sicker patients staying in beds longer.
The number of code 1 calls for paramedics has continued to increase. (AAP: Diego Fedele)
For the third consecutive quarter, Ambulance Victoria experienced its busiest three months on record.
Code 1 emergency calls rose to 97,982, almost 5,000 more than the previous quarter. This is 16 percent more than the same period last year.
Only 64 percent of those code 1 emergencies were responded to within the baseline 15 minutes, a decrease from the previous quarter.
Authorities have continued to urge Victorians to save the triple-0 for emergencies only, with Ambulance Victoria saying around 500 callers each day did not need paramedics.
The Minister of Health has thanked paramedics, health workers and the hospital system for their work during a time when up to 2,000 hospital workers are on leave every day.
“This is our third winter of COVID. All winters are tough on our hospital system, but actually this winter has proven to be especially tough,” Thomas said.
“It’s not about ambulance numbers, it’s actually about other parts of the health system, where people aren’t getting the care they need,” said Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill.
“Don’t fix a leaky faucet by putting a bigger bucket under it, you have to fix the problem at the source.”
The Victorian Healthcare Association called on the state government to create a workforce strategy and recruitment campaign to ease the pressure, and for the federal government to speed up visas for overseas workers.
“We can’t keep asking healthcare workers to keep going when we know this won’t be the last wave of COVID,” said the association’s Juan Paolo Legaspi.
The minister said the state had hired about 8,500 health workers in the last two years.
A study published in June showed that the ambulance death rate was already on the rise before the pandemic hit.
“This is not just because of COVID,” Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier said.
“These are years of underinvestment and mismanagement by the Andrews Labor government.”
The government has announced a raft of measures as part of its $12 billion pandemic recovery plan, including expanding virtual emergency services, new paramedics and overhauling the crisis-ridden triple-0 system.
Alfred among the hospitals restricting operations due to the Omicron wave
The Alfred Hospital, where Alex Stosic is due to be treated, released a statement in mid-July saying that due to the Omicron winter surge, it was making operational changes such as postponing some surgeries and procedures electives
It was one of several health services across the state to implement similar measures.
“It should never have come to this,” said Crozier, of the opposition.
“This is a huge number of Victorians waiting for this life-saving surgery, and while they wait, they wait in pain.”
Despite how the wait has been affecting his life, Alex described his attitude as “stoic”.
“As long as I readjust my whole lifestyle, I can cope,” he said.
“I feel like there are people who are probably worse off than me who have contracted COVID and need ventilators; I don’t need a ventilator.”
The lock surgery it requires is relatively new, meaning only a handful of surgeons are capable of performing it.
Alex Stosic’s life revolves around waiting for news that he can be operated on. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
Meanwhile, Alex said there wasn’t much he could do except wait for the phone call about the surgery that could bring him back to life.
He said he was very grateful to the paramedics, doctors and other health workers who saved his life and stabilized his organs after his body shut down for the first time last year, and was trying to stay patient.
“I’ve always had the attitude that you can play the cards you’re dealt and they’re the only cards you can play,” he said.
“All I can do is live a pretty sedentary, restricted life and hope that somehow we get the hospital system and the COVID under control so I can go in there and have surgery.”
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