The Queensland Opposition Leader says there are growing fears more health service jobs will be lost from the Wide Bay.
Annastacia Palaszczuk and the shadow cabinet have spent the past two days on a listening tour of Bundaberg.
She says the region has already lost 350 health workers and there are fears more may go after the election.
“People who are currently working in the Wide Bay health district are petrified of losing their jobs,” she said.
“That is why Leanne [Donaldson], our Labor candidate for Bundaberg, and I are prepared to stand up and be the voice for these people who are absolutely terrified that their jobs will go.”
Figures from the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service show every urgent, semi-urgent and non-urgent elective surgery patient at the Bundaberg Hospital this year has been seen within clinically recommended times.
However, Ms Palaszczuk says the figures do not tell the whole story.
“Well I’ve heard that there’s actually over 200,000 people across Queensland on the waiting list to get on the waiting list, so I don’t think we can believe everything that this Government says,” she said.
“When you look at 350 jobs, that’s 350 families that have been impacted by the slash and burn mentality of the Newman Government.”
No plans for more job cuts
The LNP’s Member for Burnett, Stephen Bennett, says the hard choices on jobs have already been made.
He says there are no plans for more cuts.
“Not absolutely discounting that there won’t be some rationalisation because there is a large movement in Queensland Health from anytime, it’s the largest employer of public sector employees in Queensland,” he said.
“So there’s no doubt that there will be staff movement but at this stage we’ve got the model pretty right, the front-line services are now providing services as we all expected as Queenslanders, to be the best and most efficient that we can be.”
Mr Bennett says the waiting list system is a hangover from the previous Labor government.
He says the figures speak for themselves.
“The facts are of course we are the second best performing hospital in the nation and that goes a long way when you think about the promises that were made about revitalising front-line services and in particular health and on the back of record investment, some $2 billion more than was invested under the Labor Party,” he said.
Source: ABC