Minister says longer waiting times “good news”!

· Minister says longer waiting times “good news”!

· $867m. a year spent on hospitals in 2008-09 – $252m more annually than in 2005-06

· Yet waiting times for elective patients have increased from 34 days to 46 days and waiting lists increased from 7133 to 7742 during this period;

In State Parliament today Lara Giddings took Labor’s spin to new heights but claiming that longer waiting times are somehow “good news”!
An increase in the median waiting time by 10 days and 600 more on the waiting list since 2006 is not good news for Tasmanians, no matter how the Health Minister wants to spin it.
The 2009 report on hospitals by the AMA states longer waiting times impairs quality of life, reduces workforce productivity and reduces the contributions that older Australians can make to the community.
For the Health Minister to say in Parliament that a longer median waiting time for elective surgery is good news is simply breath-taking.
Spending more in health for worsening results is not good news either, and clearly highlights the failures of the Health Minister to deliver outcomes.
The Minister said in relation to elective surgery in 2006 that the State Labor Government was putting significant resources into health and “those resources are not just going into some black hole, they are actually delivering and improving services for Tasmanians”.
Yet the recent DHHS Annual Report shows elective surgery results are not improving and have actually gone backwards.
Brett Whiteley MP Shadow Minister for Health and Human Services