"ENT delays"

I live in Broome, around 2,200 km from Perth, and I have been waiting for a septoplasty through the public health system since June 2019.

I want to share my experience because what has happened recently comes after seven years of waiting, numerous appointments and assessments, repeated travel between Broome and Perth, and now two surgery cancellations in less than two weeks.

I was originally placed on the waiting list in June 2019.

In February 2024, I had a phone consultation. In May 2024, I travelled from Broome to Fremantle for an in-person consultation.

In January 2025, I travelled to Perth again for pre-admission and pre-anesthetic assessments. There were further assessments in March, a telephone consultation with an anesthetist on 4 June, and another trip from Broome to Fiona Stanley Hospital in June. Further consultations followed in September, October and November 2025.

At one stage in 2025, I was offered a surgery date that I could not accept because of work commitments. I advised the hospital through MyCare and explained the reason.

Then, in August 2026, after all these years, I was finally given a confirmed surgery date for September.

Living in Broome, preparing for surgery in Perth takes considerable organization. Once the date was confirmed, I organized sick leave, arrangements at work, travel, accommodation and the time I would need to remain in Perth for recovery.

I receive assistance through the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme, PATS, which helps regional patients who need to travel for specialist medical treatment that is not available locally. I am very grateful that PATS exists, but it is a subsidy and does not cover everything involved in travelling more than 2,000 km for treatment.

For the September surgery, I had already booked non-refundable accommodation in Perth for my recovery.

Then, around a week before the surgery, I was told it had been cancelled.

This meant trying to undo arrangements that had already been made around a confirmed surgery date, including the non-refundable accommodation.

Fortunately, I had purchased optional travel insurance when I made the Airbnb booking. Even so, recovering the accommodation involved a lengthy process with Airbnb and the insurer, providing documentation and explaining the circumstances of the cancellation. After considerable back and forth, I eventually received a full refund.

My septoplasty was then rescheduled for later in September, and I started organizing everything again.

I arranged sick leave and my work commitments around the new date, organized new accommodation and made new travel arrangements.

Due to the logistics involved this time, rather than flying from Broome to Perth, I had to drive. It is a 22-hour drive, which I completed over two long days.

I had been advised that recovery following the septoplasty would be a minimum of two weeks. Because I had driven from Broome, I organized three weeks of accommodation so I would have some additional recovery time before attempting the 2,200 km drive home and some flexibility if recovery took longer than expected.

This also coincided with the school holidays, when suitable accommodation was extremely limited and costly.

I arrived at Fiona Stanley Hospital at 6 am for my rescheduled septoplasty.

At 8 am, a member of the surgical team came to see me. They apologized and told me that my surgeon was unwell and my surgery would have to be cancelled again.

I completely understand that doctors get sick and that some circumstances are outside anyone’s control. My concern is not that my surgeon became unwell. It is what two cancellations mean when you have travelled 2,200 km from regional WA for a surgery you have already been waiting seven years to have.

By this point, I had driven 22 hours over two days, organized accommodation and recovery away from home, and rearranged my leave and work for the second time.

I spoke with several staff members that morning. One nurse could see how difficult the situation had become and genuinely tried to find another option by her own kindness.

At 10:30 am, I was told that otherwise my surgery could not be performed until November. This would have created further difficulties with my work commitments and meant reorganizing everything yet again.

The nurse continued looking at other options and eventually managed to have my surgery rescheduled for a few days later.

Then, as soon as I left the hospital on 25 September, I received another letter from the hospital confirming the new surgery date.

I opened it and found yet another problem.

Instead of listing my septoplasty, the procedure on the letter says “GES Endocrine”.

At that point, the domino of mistakes became unbearable.

I had just walked out of the hospital after my second cancelled surgery in less than two weeks, having travelled all the way from Broome, and the very next correspondence I received about the newly rescheduled surgery appeared to have the wrong procedure on it.

After seven years in this process, I should not have to wonder whether the correct procedure is even attached to my booking four days before I am supposed to have surgery.

This is where my confidence in the process has really been affected.

I understand that individual things can go wrong. Surgery schedules can change. Clinicians can become sick. Administrative mistakes can happen.

What is difficult to accept is the sequence of events and the lack of certainty it has created for me as a regional patient.

I am genuinely grateful that Australia has a public health system and that PATS provides assistance to people living in regional WA. I do not take either of those things for granted.

My surgery is now scheduled again and I am truly hoping it goes ahead and the correct procedure be done.

But regardless of what happens on the new date, I believe there needs to be greater recognition of the impact repeated cancellations and administrative errors can have on patients who have to travel thousands of kilometers to access their healthcare.