Home Health Facility Hospital Coast’s record outpatient wait lists

Coast’s record outpatient wait lists

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Doctors in an operating theatre in hospital. Picture: iStock
Doctors in an operating theatre in hospital. Picture: iStock
THE number of patients waiting to see public health system specialists on the Gold Coast has hit a record high.

There are now 23,325 people waiting to see a specialist — up from 15,318 just over a year ago.

Yesterday Health Minister Cameron Dick yesterday announced $10.5 million in extra funding to reduce outpatient waits.

Mr Dick said extended waiting times were not happening now but there were still patients who had been on a list since September, 2012.

Health Minister Cameron Dick has announced waiting list funding for the Gold Coast.

There are 2363 people who have waited longer than 12 months for an appointment.

Two years ago, chief executive Ron Calvert said the list had skyrocketed to 29,000 for booked and unbooked waits.

That was after the Gold Coast University Hospital had seen in influx of patients following its 2013 opening.

Yesterday he said the figure was now around 31,000.

Gold Coast University Hospital. Picture Adam Head

Neurosurgery, ear nose and throat, ophthalmology, gastroenterology and orthopedics were the target of the latest funding boost.

Extra staff would be hired with additional slots for appointments and surgery on evenings and weekends made available.

It means 6700 extra Gold Coasters will be given outpatient appointments and surgery before June 30 next year.

The longest referral is for neurosurgery and was made in September 2012.

ENT is not far off at February 2013. That specialty has 3443 patients waiting to be seen — 895 of them for longer than a year.

Ron Calvert, Gold Coast Health chief executive. Picture Adam Head

For gastroenterology, the longest patient wait has been since April 2014.

Last year the State Government allocated $1.2 million in extra funding in an $8 million pool that would help nearly 2000 locals.

“This money is going to frontline services at Gold Coast Health which will ensure people are seen sooner and can have clarity about their health care needs,” Mr Dick said yesterday.

“These funds will go directly to beginning to address the issue here on the Gold Coast.”

The funding has allowed the service to expand a neuro-physio screening process to ensure patients are seen by the appropriate clinician, say an advanced physiotherapist.

Mr Calvert said the list was as long as it had ever been.

So far this financial year the service has had 280,791 patient encounters, compared to 263,240 for the same period the year before.

“We are seeing a lot more patients but we are getting a lot more referrals,” he said.

“We are over-performing against the contract we’ve got.

“There are more new services now, less people being referred to Brisbane and the overall size of the organisation has grown tremendously.

“I’m not complaining about how much money they put in but when you offer the range of services we offer, it’s going to be popular.”