To My Bundaberg Patients: An Apology and an Explanation

I am sorry that I have had to cancel some of your procedures and appointments

Providing urological care to patients in Bundaberg and the surrounding region has been important to me, and I have greatly valued the relationships I have developed with my patients, their families, local doctors, nurses and hospital staff.

That is why having to cancel a consultation or surgical procedure at short notice is something I find particularly difficult.

Recently, however, I have had to make these decisions because of repeated last-minute changes and cancellations affecting flights I have booked with Qantas and Link Airways between Brisbane and Bundaberg.

To every patient who has been affected, I am sincerely sorry.

A cancelled operation is not simply a cancelled appointment

I know how much preparation goes into coming to hospital.

You may have taken time off work. Your partner may have taken leave to look after you. Someone may have driven several hours to be with you. You may have organised childcare, stopped medications, completed tests and fasted from the night before.

Most importantly, you may have spent days or weeks preparing yourself mentally for an operation.

Then, sometimes on the morning of your procedure, you are told that your surgeon cannot get to Bundaberg because the flight has been cancelled.

I can only imagine how frustrating, disappointing and, at times, distressing that must be.

You deserve better than that.

Regional patients deserve reliable transport too

Specialist medical care in regional Australia already comes with challenges that patients living in major cities often do not experience.

Visiting specialists are one way of bringing care closer to patients rather than expecting every patient to travel to Brisbane.

But that model depends upon something very basic:

The aeroplane actually needs to fly.

When an airline cancels or materially changes a regional flight at the last minute, the consequences extend well beyond inconvenience for an individual passenger.

In my circumstances, one cancelled seat can mean an entire operating list or clinic is disrupted.

Behind that operating list are real people.

Patients have prepared for surgery. Theatre staff and anaesthetists have been rostered. Hospital beds and equipment have been organised. Families have changed their plans. General practitioners have referred patients expecting them to receive specialist care.

A last-minute flight cancellation can unravel all of that remarkably quickly.

My frustration with Qantas and Link Airways

I appreciate that airlines sometimes need to cancel flights. Weather, aircraft safety, operational problems and other circumstances can make cancellation unavoidable.

However, the frequency and particularly the last-minute nature of the disruptions I have personally experienced with Qantas and Link Airways have made maintaining a dependable visiting surgical service to Bundaberg increasingly difficult.

This is not simply about the inconvenience caused to me as a traveller.

It is about the patients waiting at the other end of the flight.

Regional air services are part of the infrastructure that allows professionals, businesses and healthcare services to function outside Australia’s major cities.

I believe airlines operating regional routes need to recognise the broader consequences when those services become unreliable, particularly when cancellations occur with little notice and there is no realistic alternative that allows a specialist to reach the region in time.

Why can’t I simply take the next flight?

I wish it were that easy.

An operating theatre is not something that can simply be shifted several hours down the timetable.

An operation requires an anaesthetist, nursing staff, theatre personnel, specialised equipment, hospital beds and sufficient postoperative support. Other patients are also scheduled for procedures throughout the day.

Most importantly, surgery should never be rushed.

If a cancelled flight means I cannot arrive with enough time to safely complete an operating list, I will cancel or postpone the procedure rather than compromise patient care.

That decision is deeply frustrating, but patient safety will always win that argument.

To the patients I have disappointed

This is the part that matters most to me.

If you have been sitting at home fasting since midnight, or already travelled to hospital, only to discover that your operation cannot proceed, I am very sorry.

If your consultation has been postponed after you arranged work, travel or family commitments around it, I am sorry.

And if you have wondered whether your appointment or procedure was somehow unimportant, please know that it was not.

I know there is a person behind every name on my operating list.

I know that you have a family, responsibilities, anxieties and plans. I also know that being told “we will need to reschedule” does not magically undo everything you have already organised.

I remain committed to regional patients

I strongly believe that Australians living in regional communities should have reasonable access to specialist healthcare.

Whenever it is practical and safe to do so, I want to continue supporting patients outside Brisbane and reducing the need for people to make long journeys simply to see a specialist.

But regional specialist medicine cannot function in isolation.

It requires hospitals, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and transport services to work together. Reliable regional aviation is part of that chain.

When that link repeatedly fails, patients ultimately carry the consequences.

Thank you

To my Bundaberg patients, their families, the local doctors who refer to me, and the wonderful nursing, administrative and theatre staff who have had to deal with the consequences of these disruptions:

Thank you for your patience, understanding and support.

And once again, to any patient whose care I have had to postpone because I could not get to Bundaberg:

I am genuinely sorry.

I will continue to do everything reasonably within my control to provide you with reliable, safe and compassionate urological care.

Perhaps there is also a broader conversation that needs to occur about the reliability of regional aviation and the people who depend upon it.

Because when a regional flight is cancelled, sometimes much more than a flight is cancelled.

Dr Jo Schoeman
Urological Surgeon