The Liberals have trumpeted their promised improvements to elective surgery, but the latest government figures show the waiting list has grown again – for the fourth consecutive month.
Many Tasmanians have been waiting anxiously for years, often in pain, to have much-needed surgery. This news will be devastating, and likely unsurprising for them, given the Liberals’ appalling track record in health over their 10 years in government.
Jeremy Rockliff and new Health Minister Guy Barnett have repeatedly celebrated their elective surgery success, but this evidence shows just as many Tasmanians are on the waiting list now as a year ago.
The Liberals have also failed to deliver almost every target in their own Elective Surgery Action Plan.
For a decade the Liberals have focused on band-aid solutions in health, and the consequences are clear – ambulance ramping is out of control, thousands of Tasmanians are waiting longer for surgery, and staff who have worked for decades have been pushed over the brink.
The government needs to stop treating healthcare as a political problem that’s dealt with by their PR team, and take action to turn things around.
We need an urgent investment to increase and retain staff, accelerate work on hospital infrastructure, modernise outdated parts of the system, community health to keep people well and out of hospital. Until the government listens to staff and communities, and changes what they’re doing, things will only get worse.
