Queensland opposition says it is harder to see specialist despite government claims

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The state government says the public hospital waitlist for elective surgery is shrinking for the first time in a decade. But the state opposition has slammed the claim arguing it's only because it's harder than ever to see a specialist.

Transcript

00:00Waiting for a spot on the waitlist.

00:05About 60,000 Queenslanders are currently in line for elective surgery,

00:10down 3,500 from last year.

00:13We have reduced the elective surgery waitlist by 5%.

00:17The Health Minister says the drop in numbers is due to a $100 million investment

00:23which saw thousands of public surgery patients treated in private hospitals free of charge.

00:29Why we're putting $1.75 billion into the program over the next four years

00:35and that will see an additional 30,000 surgeries being provided.

00:40But the opposition says patients are waiting longer than ever, just on a different list.

00:46These are Queenslanders who have been referred by their GP to see a specialist

00:50who may need life saving surgery but they won't know

00:55because they can't even get through the front door.

00:5830,000 outpatients are currently waiting for a specialist appointment in the state's public system.

01:05That's the size of Gympie. I mean no wonder our health system is in such crisis.

01:11Just 60% of those people are being seen within the clinically recommended time.

01:16That's not good enough. There's more work to be done on it.

01:19But if we can move people through the elective surgery waitlist and then we can move people through the referrals

01:26that come from the outpatient's waitlist, we will be able to start attacking that problem as well.

01:32For those who do make it into the operating theatre...

01:34It's like winning a lotto until your number comes out basically. That's what it felt like.

01:39It's a gamble worth taking.

01:41I've done it. I've now got a new heap. So for that I'm very thankful, very grateful. It will change my life dramatically.

01:51I've done it. That's what I'm going to say.

01:54I've done it.

01:55I've done it.

01:56I've done it.

01:57I've done it.

01:58I've done it.

02:00I've done it.

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