Health Minister Lawrence Springborg’s hospital waiting list guarantee was a “merry-go-around” for patients, Opposition health spokeswoman Jo Ann Miller said.
“What he has announced is the situation where people who need urgent category 1 surgery may have to get on a plane, maybe to Cairns, maybe to Townsville, maybe to Mackay, maybe to Rockhampton or maybe even here to Brisbane, ” Ms Miller said.
“This is a merry-go-round for all those category one patients,” she said.
Queensland Health’s elective surgery waiting list statistics show there are 531 patients who have not been seen within the minimum waiting list times – 30 days for urgent patients, 90 days for semi-urgent patients and one year for less urgent patients.
That includes 21 category 1 patients in Queensland, 367 category 2 waiting list patients and 143 category 3 waiting list patients on November 23, 2014.
The statistics show at September 2014 most of the categoery 1 demand patients were on the Gold Coast (5), in the Metro North region (5), in Wide Bay (6), or the Sunshine Coast (4).
In the semi-urgent category – where surgery is required within 90 days – the biggest over-time wait is in the Metro South region (214), Metro North (61), Gold Coast (34) and Central Queensland (41).
Ms Miller raised the concept of a “great big new health tax” to cover the $170 million cost of Queensland Health buying the private sector beds and covering the cost of transporting patients around Queensland if they do not meet the “guarantee.”
“Look, he is going to have to find $170 million,” Ms Miller said.
“The only way he can do it is by cutting health, cutting other public service departments, or raise taxes,” she said.
“And we believe there could be a great big new health tax in Queensland to cover this surgery merry go around policy.”
She denied Labor was scaremongering.
However Health Minister Lawrence Springborg and Metro North health board chief executive Richard Ashby on Sunday morning explained that savings had already been found.
Mr Springborg said there was “no additional funding from Treasury” required for the $170 million waiting list guarantee.
“This is being funded from within Queensland Health through significant reduction in bureacracy and red tape,” he said.
He said “back office” bureacrary positions had been abolished.
“This will basically cost around $170 million – all internally funded through a reduction in red tape and bureacracy in Queensland Health.”
“It will cost Queensland taxpayers not one cent more.”
Dr Ashby said each hospital and health board had surgical co-ordinators who talked each week to make sure surgeries happened.
“They will be working together across the city, across the state, to make sure that the guarantee is met,” he said.
Dr Ashby said the Metro South and Metro North health regions both had more than 3000 patients which could not been seen within the 30-day, 90-days and one year time frames.
“Today it is under 100. And we have done that in less than two years,” he said.
Dr Ashby said health services would not have to be cut.
He said between “three to four per cent” of surgeries were outsourced to private hospitals in 2013-14 and did not expect that ratio to increase.
“And that funding remains within the system,” he said.
Health board chairs or chief executives were not paid performance bonuses to keep the new system operating, Dr Ashby said.
Under Mr Springborg’s concept, which starts from February 1, patients would not have to carry the travel or accommodation costs.
If a patient has to travel more than 50 kilometres for the new surgery the costs will be met by the Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme, Mr Springborg said.
“These patients wont have to pay for any travel or accommodation costs if they are treated more than 50 kilometres from their original hospital,” he said.
The new Lady Cilento Childrens Hospital at South Brisbane – which opens next weekend – does not operate under the Wait Time Guarantee until April 1, 2015.
Source: Brisbane Times