00:00Just two days before her elective surgery, Monica received an evening phone call telling
00:08her the procedure was cancelled.
00:10Receiving that news when you're home on your own has been emotional and destroying.
00:18The 66 year old has blood cancer and needs surgery for bone fragility.
00:23She says her operation has been cancelled four times now and her health has suffered.
00:29Even though I'm 66, I feel like a 90 year old.
00:33This is a government who went to the election promising that health would be a priority
00:38and that has slipped further and further down the ranks.
00:40According to SA Health, nearly 25,000 South Australians are waiting for elective surgery.
00:476,000 of those are overdue.
00:49The government says hospitals performed a record number of nearly 62,000 elective surgeries
00:55last year, an increase of almost 9,000 each year since it formed government.
01:01The health minister says he apologises for delays in patient care and says Monica's previous
01:07operations were cancelled due to pressures in the hospital system, issues with medication
01:12and another time when the patient opted for a preferred surgeon.
01:16In this case, this patient had a particular preference for one particular surgeon to do
01:21that work and one of those occasions was a situation in which that surgeon wasn't available.
01:27The delays were absolutely regrettable, however some of those decisions were made to ensure
01:33that we could meet her preferences but also ensure that her surgery was safe and had a successful
01:39outcome.
01:40Monica has a new surgery date in December which she says can't come soon enough.
01:45But as often, I haven't seen issues with brainığınıaid.
01:48I thought it was a component of my sight every slightly when the patient's experience
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