The ACT government will invest an additional $34 million into elective surgeries in move designed to slash the extended-delay waiting list by more than half in a year.
The four-year package, to be announced on Sunday, will include $250,000 for bariatric surgery across the next 12 months, the first stand-alone public funding for the weight-loss procedure for the most seriously obese.
Health Minister Katy Gallagher said the funding – the second instalment of an election commitment to increase the elective surgery budget by $84 million – would fund up to an additional 500 procedures in 2014-15.
“Importantly this extra funding is expected to reduce the number of people waiting too long for their operations to fewer than 300 people by June 2015,” Ms Gallagher said.
As reported earlier in May, the latest ACT Health figures show there were 736 people waiting longer than the recommended time for elective surgery in March. The figure is down 20 per cent – from 922 people – in March 2013.
The government said it was not clear how much of the money would be spent on public patient’s surgery in private – or NSW – hospitals.
“However this has proven to be a successful model that we have been using and it does not cost the ACT government more to provide the procedures from within a private facility,” Ms Gallagher said.
There were about 11,000 ACT-funded elective surgeries last financial year, with 191 performed in private hospitals.
The funding measure, which does not include any building works, and embrace of the weight-loss surgery was welcomed by new Australian Medical Association ACT branch president Liz Gallagher, no relation to the head of government.
“The ideal is to work within the ACT with what we’ve got in the public hospital system by increasing efficiencies, getting through more cases in a lot of time, but we welcome anything that is going to be better for patient outcomes,” the president said.
“Bariatric surgery is one of the things that has been shown to work in terms of long-term weight loss and health outcomes – and the weights of obesity are related to socio-economic status … so I’m always going to welcome fair access to proven treatments.”
Bariatric surgery is already part of the obesity management service run through the Belconnen Community Health Centre, but Ms Gallagher lauded the first targeted ACT funding for the procedure, which she said would involve criterias and be backed up by other clinical and support services.
Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson said Labor had “created the longest waiting times in history”, but welcomed the funding, which he hoped would reduce delays and alleviate ongoing pain for many patients.
Health statistics showed people who needed surgery within one year were waiting an average of 147 days for an operation, up from 135 days in March 2013, with median waiting times for urgent (within one month) and semi-urgent (within three months) elective surgery both falling, to 10 days and 48 days.