Launceston Hospital, is undergoing a very stressful and busy time.
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Anyone would be too, if they had an alleged waiting list in the thousands, of patients to be treated and a massive shortage in staff and funding.
With a list this long, many patients may very well be waiting two to three years to get their turn. For some, this may not be the end of the world but for others, it might be.
A Launceston resident, whose identity will stay anonymous, has reported being at the end of this backed-up waiting list and diagnosed with bowel cancer - a type of cancer that kills more than all others combined.
With the possibility that the cancer is not aggressive, the two-year wait might not kill this resident, yet no one would want to live with the fact that they have a 100 per cent positive diagnosis of cancer that can't be treated for years, though just a small colonoscopy could tell them whether they die or not.
This resident is allegedly one of hundreds and possibly thousands that need immediate treatment for their various surgeries and needs. Yet, with a waiting list this long, many lives could be cut short before they could be saved.
If there are people in Launceston like this resident, who need operations and treatments that could be over in around forty-minutes, then that could mean people with simple and easy to-solve sicknesses or needs, could be waiting an unnecessarily long time to receive the easiest of procedures.
Skin cancer removals, biopsies and colonoscopies are just a few things that could be put at the back of a very lengthy waiting list and not attended to for months into the future, let alone a reasonably complicated surgery like a hip or knee replacement that may need immediate medical attention.
With this huge wave of patients and inadequate government funding, this list needs to be shortened before it gets too long and some are not treated when they need to be most.
So, the best we can do is wish the best for the waiting patients and hope the situation changes for the better and not worse before their medical needs are seen to.
- Marcus Kelly is a student at Kings Meadows High School.