Over 2,000 on cardiothoracic surgery waiting list, some wait up to 7 months
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, in a written parliamentary reply, said the average waiting period for major procedures such as Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery and heart valve surgery is seven months.
He also said there are 603 elective cases on the waiting list, with an average waiting period of 21 months for paediatric cardiothoracic surgeries at seven of the ministry's hospitals offering cardiothoracic surgery services.
"For now, paediatric cardiothoracic surgeries are performed by adult cardiothoracic surgeons or referred to the National Heart Institute as paediatric cardiothoracic specialists are still undergoing training," he said.
Dzulkefly was responding to a question by Yeo Bee Yin (PH-Puchong), who asked for the number of patients on the waiting list and the average waiting period for surgeries involving cataracts, kidney stones, heart-related procedures such as bypass, heart valve surgery, arrhythmia, congenital heart disease, as well as lung surgeries.
He said a total of 2,661 patients are on the waiting list for kidney stone surgeries, with an average waiting period of 11 months at 13 hospitals with resident urology specialists.
As for cataract surgery, Dzulkefly said a total of 9,233 patients are currently on the waiting list nationwide, with an average waiting period of three months.
He stressed that the ministry has rolled out several initiatives to reduce the waiting period for surgical procedures.
These include expanding the hospital cluster concept and placing surgical specialists at more hospitals that do not have resident specialists.
In addition, the ministry has implemented collaborations between agencies and public-private partnership programmes to reduce surgery waiting times.
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