The Queensland Government says there has been a massive reduction in patients waiting for elective surgery, but the Opposition claims the figures are being fudged.
Health Minister Lawrence Springborg and Premier Campbell Newman visited a Princess Charles Hospital in Brisbane today to trumpet their good news – almost 600 patients had been cleared from the list since the Government took office in early 2012.
Despite the improvement, 531 were still waiting for elective surgery beyond their recommended time period at the end of the September quarter.
Mr Newman hoped that come December, no Queenslander would be waiting longer than expected for elective surgery.
“In the last two-and-a-half years we’ve seen Queensland Health go from one of the worse performing health services in the nation to arguably one of the best,” he said.
Mr Springborg said he would focus on the wait list for specialist appointments next, with the latest figures showing more than 400,000 people were waiting for pre-surgery appointments.
He said Queensland Health also faced many challenges for those waiting to get an outpatient appointment before being placed on the elective surgery list.
Mr Springborg said more than 4.5 million outpatients had been through the system in the past 12 months, and the list kept growing.
“What we’ve got to do to is manage our patients better because we’ve got people on outpatients waiting lists for a long time who should be better managed by their general practitioner or allied healthcare professional in their community,” he said.
“It needs reform and that’s the next significant area of reform for us.”
Labor says Government blocking people from waiting list
Labor MP Dr Anthony Lynham said some people were waiting eight years to get onto the waiting list to get their cataracts done.
“Four-hundred-thousand people in Queensland, nearly three times the population of Townsville, is waiting to simply get on the waiting list to see a specialist,” he said.
“He [Mr Springborg] has blocked people getting on the waiting list and that is why you see this artificial reduction, on paper it probably looks good.
“You can imagine three years ago the Premier said to our Health Minister, ‘no matter what it takes get rid of our waiting list’.
“It is all a myth.”
The Australian Medical Association Queensland greeted the new figures cautiously.
President Dr Shaun Rudd said the government had to focus on reducing the waiting list to see a specialist.
“I think the system is performing particularly well,” he said.
“There is no question that the waiting list figures have come down.
“Unfortunately yes the waiting list for the waiting list seems to be continually expanding and that is something that the government is working on.”