30 Apr 2020

Coronavirus: Cancer patient's hospital stay for small procedure

From Morning Report, 7:24 am on 30 April 2020

A terminal cancer patient has spent days in a half-full hospital waiting to have a procedure that should have taken an hour.

Some doctors have been urging hospitals to get back to business as usual after much of it was on hold for the lockdown.

Craig Gutry went into Palmerston North Hospital on Sunday to have a lump in his throat drained that was stopping him eating.

His wife, Jennie, says he initailly waited in the emergency department for hours before developing a slight fever and spending the night.

It wasn't until yesterday - three days after he went in - that Gutry's brief procedure was finally done but he had to wait one more time - for five hours - because staff could not find a doctor to discharge him.