RATES of orthopaedic surgeries at Peel Health Campus have increased and are set to rise further.
Dr Omar Khorshid began at Peel more than a month ago and sees about 10 patients each clinic.
“I come down once a fortnight, while the other doctors are here two days a week,” he said.
“I see a lot of arthritis in the knees and hips, and sports injuries mainly in the knees.”
Dr Khorshid said the rate of patients was rising due to a variety of factors.
“Patient rates are going up due to population growth and an increase in the ageing population due to the baby boom,” he said.
“Also, people have increasing expectations; they used to put up with being stuck in their house with arthritis (but) now everyone wants to be active, walking their dog and doing things as they get older, and now technology can keep up.
“People with knee replacements are really increasing around the country.”
He said waiting times differed depending on the hospital.
“Right here for me now, they are nothing as I’ve just started,” he said. “(For) joint replacement surgery, we aim to do surgery in the public sector within three months. But we often don’t achieve that.”
Dr Khorshid sees both private and public patients.
“In WA, just under two thirds of hip replacements are done in the private sector,” he said.
“There are a lot of people with private health insurance. In the private sector there are less waiting times. If people are in the private sector, they can get their surgery done quite quickly.”