At her last six appointments, which were scheduled in the afternoons, Ms Dunn said she would wait for more than two hours, only to be sent home.<\/p>\n
“Waiting all that time to be told, ‘Sorry, we don’t have enough injections, you won’t be having your eye injection today,'” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Dunn said she had complained to a nurse unit manager and a liaison officer.<\/p>\n
“They told me that they only allocated 10 injections [for the] outpatients’ clinic per day \u2026 they’re seeing up to 25 patients a day, so it’s a very unfair system,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I feel for the doctors and nurses. They are so overworked and they’re seeing too many patients than what they can handle.”<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4307ba8134572fab1e931dee1df20e97.jpeg\")
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Cindy Dunn has been receiving eye treatment at the Modbury Hospital Outpatient Eye Clinic. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Ms Dunn says she has type 1 diabetes and macular edema, and that the medication helped to treat the build-up of fluid.<\/p>\n
Without private health insurance “because of the cost of living” and feeling “traumatised” by her experience, Ms Dunn has made the “difficult decision” to not return for the vision-saving treatment.<\/p>\n
“I’ll go blind in the right eye \u2026 that’s the only choice I have.”<\/p>\n
Apology issued<\/p>\n
The Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) is responsible for the Modbury Hospital Outpatient Eye Clinic.<\/p>\n
NALHN chief executive Karen Puvogel said it had been in contact with Ms Dunn “in the past week about her concerns” and “will continue to engage with her”.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s important that patients have access to the care they need in a timely manner and we sincerely apologise to Ms Dunn that it wasn\u2019t her experience,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Modbury Hospital closely monitors medication stock and sources ad-hoc doses in and out of hours when needed.<\/p>\n
“This was a one-off occurrence for this patient and is not a frequent problem for the hospital.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/e96c588705fa1160358ec65ab084eca8.jpeg\")
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NALHN chief executive Karen Puvogel has apologised to Cindy Dunn. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Ms Puvogel said the median wait-time for an ophthalmology outpatient appointment at Modbury Hospital was 13 months and that there could be delays at the clinic on the day “due to a variety of factors”.<\/p>\n
She said appointments took about 2.5 hours, which meant the clinic was limited in the number of patients it could see each day.<\/p>\n
Macular Disease Foundation Australia chief executive Kathy Chapman told 891 ABC Adelaide there was high demand for free and affordable treatment.<\/p>\n
“It’s a much more common condition than probably the health system has been ready for,” she said.<\/p>\n
Dr Chapman said about 1.9 million Australians had symptoms of macular disease but only about 40 public hospitals in the nation offered free eye injection treatments.<\/p>\n
“In South Australia there’s about six public hospitals out of 23 that we contacted that offer this. Compared to some other states, it can be even lower,” she said.<\/p>\n
“If we can stop people going blind it’s a lot less for the health system to be paying than if you have people go blind and the extra supports that they need then.”<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/883a100a7416204807c31741c87bcec5.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n