Health System Dashboard figures out today confirm Tasmanians continue to wait too long to access essential services.
The figures reveal:
- 11,342 Tasmanians are waiting for surgery, up 60 from the previous quarter
- Less than half of all surgeries are being performed within the clinically recommended time frames, down from 56% in March
- 42,238 Tasmanians are languishing on an outpatient waitlist, 2,215 more than three months ago
Shadow Health Minister Sarah Lovell said that although some non-emergency surgeries had to be cancelled as part of the COVID response, the real problem precedes the pandemic.
"The problem is the last two years during which Peter Gutwein and Liberals trashed our health system," Ms Lovell said
"The surgery waitlist has now increased by 60% since the last election and that's an absolute disgrace - many of these people are in pain and unable to work.
"The pandemic has demonstrated the catastrophic consequences of underinvestment in the health system and the need to upgrade health facilities across the state."
Sarah Lovell MLC
Shadow Health Minister
