Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Health spokesperson
The latest update to the HealthStats dashboard is another clear demonstration of a health system being completely mismanaged by the Liberals.
At the 2018 State Election, the Liberals promised that in this term of government they would make sure 90% of elective surgery patients were seen on time. That figure is now at a shocking 56%.
The overdue waiting time for patients on the urgent surgery list has gone up by a scarcely believable 123% since the last election. These urgent patients are now waiting more than four months for surgery that is clinically recommended to be done within a month.
These terrible waiting times are undoubtedly putting the lives of Tasmanians at risk. In the last year, 133 people have been admitted for emergency surgery for the procedure they were waiting for. That figure was at 86 in March 2018.
These are not just numbers. These are real people – people being let down by a Government that has quite simply refused to give the health system the support it needs.
The Liberals can try and spin these things any way they want, and they can make hollow promises about what is going to change. But Tasmanians heard it all before at the last election, and since then we’ve only seen things get worse.