Mark Speakman
NSW Leader of the Opposition
Kellie Sloane
Shadow Minister for Health
Gurmesh Singh
Shadow Minister for Regional Health
While patients wait longer for surgery and staff are stretched to breaking point, the Minns Labor Government has once again chosen spin over substance.
Instead of owning up to its failures, Labor's latest press release rewrites history and takes patients for fools, by distorting the truth to distract from a health system under strain.
The facts speak for themselves:
- The backlog of 18,000 overdue elective surgeries came at the end of the global COVID pandemic when NSW operating theatres were shut.
- The former Coalition Government invested $408 million in the 2022-23 Budget to slash that backlog, and it worked. The number of overdue surgeries plummeted under our plan, continuing into Labor's first year.
- Labor failed to reinvest or manage patient flow, which is why we've seen a new spike in backlogs under Labor. There have been no COVID shutdowns or lockdowns, just failure.
- Desperate to play catch up, Labor has thrown $200 million in December 2024, $23 million in June, and now $30 million today.
- Pre-COVID, overdue surgery lists remained stable and low – never rising above 1,000.
This morning's so-called announcement isn't about patients. It's about politics.
Chris Minns and Ryan Park are hiding from scrutiny. Labor refuses to commit to an inquiry into the Western Sydney Local Health District, despite mounting evidence of dysfunction, overworked staff, and unsafe conditions for patients.
In Ryan Park, Paul Scully and Anna Watson's own region, the Illawarra, the results speak for themselves:
Only 17.9% of emergency department patients at Wollongong Hospital and 38.2% at Shellharbour Hospital were admitted or transferred within six hours, compared with the target of at least 80%.
Fewer than half of patients at Wollongong Hospital were discharged within four hours.
At Shellharbour, only 71.6% left within four hours.
In Wollongong's Emergency Short Stay Unit, only 48.7% were treated and admitted within four hours, when the target is at least 60%.
Leader of the Opposition Mark Speakman said this morning's media stunt was a classic Labor distraction.
"This is a desperate attempt by Labor to shift blame for their own failures. They've had three budgets and two and a half years and still can't get their act together," Mr Speakman said.
Shadow Minister for Health Kellie Sloane said our hospitals are under pressure, and our nurses, doctors, and paramedics are doing everything they can.
"They're the heroes holding a broken system together while Labor spins. Patients are waiting in pain while Chris Minns and Ryan Park play politics," Ms Sloane said.
Shadow Minister for Regional Health Gurmesh Singh said Ryan Park can't even fix hospitals in his own backyard, so it's no surprise he's ignoring the rest of NSW.
"Our hospitals in the regions are running on fumes while Wollongong-based ministers issue press releases. People out here aren't asking for luxury wards; they just want a doctor who isn't three towns away and an ambulance that shows up before it's too late. Labor's turned its back on regional NSW," Mr Singh said.
