Ms. Mettam asks the Minister for Health about assurances for a constituent, Michelle, awaiting preventive surgery and a biopsy. The Minister expresses sympathy but cannot guarantee surgery due to being neither a doctor nor clinician, while assuring urgent surgeries will proceed.

AnsweredQoN 14Legislative Assembly
Asked
15 February 2022
Portfolio
Health

QuestionView source ↗

CORONAVIRUS — ELECTIVE SURGERY
14. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I have a supplementary question.
Given that this is not a cancellation of surgery, what assurances can the
minister provide to Michelle, who has now been waiting three years, that she
will not have to wait any longer?

AnswerView source ↗

I
am sorry for Michelle's circumstances; they are incredibly challenging.
I understand that the surgery she is seeking is preventive surgery as
opposed to surgery for life-threatening circumstances.
Ms L. Mettam : She has a lump.
She is having a biopsy.
Ms A. SANDERSON : I am not
understating the stressfulness of that situation at all; they are very, very
difficult personal circumstances to be in. I am not her clinician and I cannot
make any guarantees or decisions about surgery because I am not a doctor or a clinician.
Those decisions are made between the patient and the doctor, as is
appropriately so, but I can guarantee that all urgent surgeries will still go
ahead in our hospitals whether we have a surge of COVID or not.

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