Labor’s pre-election waiting list swindle is in tatters today following revelations that the government has stopped patients getting hospital appointments to prevent them joining the surgery waiting list.

This is one of the worst frauds perpetrated by any government in the
history of the Victorian health system.

Labor has achieved its pre-election waiting list swindle by:

• Blowing out the waiting lists for out-patient appointments
• Refusing to give people an out-patient appointment at all
• Writing to doctors suggesting their patients go private

Documents published today show that while Barwon Health’s surgery waiting list dropped by 393 from 2093 in June 2005, to 1700 in June 2006, the outpatient waiting list rocketed by 846 from 3114 in August 2005 to 3960 this August.

One patient trying to get a urology appointment at Northern Hospital was
told two weeks ago:

“We are currently experiencing an extremely large demand on this service, which can result in long delays…. It would be worthwhile visiting your family doctor (GP) to discuss this issue, as they may be able to refer you to another service with shorter waiting times.”

These revelations backs up the AMA survey of doctors released earlier this year which showed that:

• 83% felt that access to outpatient appointments had deteriorated over the last three years
• 79% thought that access for surgical patients was poor or very poor
• 82% said that their patients had deteriorated due to an extended wait for outpatient appointments

These documents show  that while Barwon Health’s surgery waiting list dropped by 393 from 2093 in June 2005, to 1700 in June 2006, the outpatient waiting list rocketed by 846 from 3114 in August 2005 to 3960 this August.

Labor has told the people of Victoria that they have improved their access to elective surgery. Today we can see that they have simply hidden the problem.

Labor got the waiting list down before the last election, only to see the numbers waiting for surgery blow-out when the poll was over.

Victorians should not be fooled again