Surgery waitlist tops 500,000 as doctors plea for urgent action
A ‘critical situation’ is unfolding with lists backlogged in the wake of pandemic measures, a group of key medical colleges say.
Medical colleges are pleading for urgent action to cut public elective surgery waitlists, which they say have swelled to “critical” levels due to COVID-19 pandemic measures.Â
An estimated half a million patients are waiting for surgery, according to the AMA, RANZCOG, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.
They say another 400,000 patients are on the ‘hidden’ waitlist — still awaiting an initial appointment at a public hospital.
In their letter to Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler, the doctors said that waitlists blew out during the pandemic, when hospitals delayed elective surgeries to ensure they could cope with COVID-19 patients.
