The Hodgman majority Liberal Government is committed to a better health system for all Tasmanians.
The latest Health Dashboard shows continuing demand growth for acute health services, and in particular elective surgery.
The Government has made no secret of the fact that the number of people added to the waiting list during the last financial year is more than 3,000 greater than five years ago.
This is exactly why we fought so hard to have the Morrison Coalition Government bring forward funding for more elective surgery and more endoscopies, and importantly the $20 million of funding will help thousands of Tasmanians to get elective surgeries and endoscopies.
Despite this growth, non-urgent Category 3 patients waiting longest for their surgery continue to experience far better waiting times than under the previous Government. The average number of days waited longer than clinically recommended in September is 106 days - significantly lower than the 531 days it was in March 2014.
There were over 90,000 more outpatient appointments delivered in 2018-19 than in 2014-15, however the outpatient waiting list is also indicative of increased demand for services. Just over 580,000 outpatient appointments were delivered in 2018-19, compared with 487,136 outpatient appointments in 2014-15.
Again, waiting times for outpatient appointments remain significantly lower than in March 2014, with Category 1 patients on average waiting over 100 days less for their appointments in September 2019 (from 289 days then to 178 days now).
There have also been 3000 more occasions of service through Oral Health Services Tasmania (OHST) in the September Quarter when compared with the June Quarter, with more than 120,000 episodes of care delivered through OHST in the last 12 months.
The Oral Health waiting list remains 2000 patients shorter than in March 2014.
The latest Healthstats Dashboard can be found here: https://www.healthstats.dhhs.tas.gov.au/healthsystem