Revelations that 24,000 people vanished off the ‘waiting list for the waiting list’ in the Far North and other patients are being removed from the list without their knowledge require a state-wide probe, Shadow Health Minister Jo-Ann Miller said today.
Mrs Miller said the Auditor-General had just this week raised serious questions about the reliability of hospital emergency department waiting times and now that uncertainty seemed to be extending to other statistics.
“These latest developments cast serious doubt on the repeated claims by the Minister for Health that the LNP has improved waiting lists and emergency department performance,” Mrs Miller said.
“Lawrence Springborg has been arrogantly wasting taxpayers’ funds on self-serving advertising to make what are now officially very doubtful claims. That spending must stop right now.
“The Newman Government has cut almost 5,000 health worker jobs right across Queensland including almost 1,800 nurse and midwife positions, but demand for public hospital services isn’t slowing. It’s growing.
“I’m sure Queensland Health workers are doing the best they can in very trying circumstances.
“But in the conditions set up by the Newman Government, doctors, nurses and administrators are expected to do more with less.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that 24,000 people dropped off the waiting list but this is just one health region.
“The only way to be sure it’s not happening in other regions or across the state is for a state wide audit.
“If Lawrence Springborg is going to spend thousands in taxpayer dollars on advertising telling people how good a Health Minister he reckons he is, he needs to be telling the truth.
“Dodgy data won’t cut it.”
Mrs Miller said it was also unacceptable that people had been removed from the list without their knowledge.
“Lawrence Springborg will take anything if it means creating an illusion of reduced waiting lists,” she said.
“It’s all well and good for people who no longer need an appointment to be taken off a list but that’s a decision between a patient and their doctor.
“It’s not a decision that should be made by someone who’s intimidated into meeting arbitrary targets because Lawrence Springborg is desperate for a good news story.
“The Auditor General must examine what’s going on so Queenslanders know what the truth is once and for all.”
Office of the Leader Of The Opposition