Patient who waited over 200 days for surgery disappointed with no response from health minister
Joshua Maxwell was booked in for an elective open-heart surgery at Westmead Hospital in May 2024, after his body started rejecting medication needed to keep him stroke-free.
His surgeon classified him as a category two patient, meaning his surgery should have taken place within 90 days. His surgeon assured him it should not take longer than 45 days.
As he waited for his surgery date, Mr Maxwell left his job, drafted a will, and even planned a funeral in case he died while waiting for the life-saving operation.
It was not until after he contacted his local state MP, David Harris, that he underwent surgery in late January 2025 — 210 days after he was first added to the list.
Mr Park apologised to Mr Maxwell through the media earlier this month, saying the 32-year-old's wait time was "not acceptable".
"We let Joshua down," Mr Park said in sit-down interview with the ABC.
"It's too long. It's not acceptable, and I apologise to him and his family."
But Mr Maxwell said in the two weeks since his story was made public, he has received no follow-up from the minister or hospital management.
Mr Maxwell has written a letter to Mr Park, stating he is not "ready to accept any apologies offered".
"It's disheartening … I think an apology needs to be made in person or in writing, not via the media," he said.
A spokesperson from the health minister's office said Mr Park "will respond to Josh's correspondence in due course".
"Minister Park receives a large volume of correspondence and attempts to respond to them as quickly as possible," they said.
Earlier this month, Mr Park said wait times in the state's public hospital system were keeping him up at night, and that he was serious about tackling the issue.
He pointed to a decrease in surgery list wait times in May, with the number of patients decreasing from 8,587 to 5,400 in May.
This year's state budget also allocated $23 million to tackle overdue surgeries, helping to fund extra staffing required to keep operating theatres open.
But Mr Maxwell said the lack of contact from the minister made him question the sincerity of Mr Park's commitment.
"It's clearly a massive statewide issue and taking it seriously needs to be more than just making a few statements in the press and going back to your office and going, 'here, staffer number two, you deal with it now'," Mr Maxwell said.
In his letter to Mr Park, he called for clearer prioritisation of surgeons' wait time preferences and a statewide patient care team for patients on longer public wait lists, doing weekly or monthly checks with patients.
"I would happily meet with you, your team, the department, or the hospital to discuss these matters — especially to better understand what went wrong in my case and why no one has addressed it with me personally," Mr Maxwell wrote.
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