Victoria’s health crisis continues to deepen with the Health Minister refusing to rule out that the current surgery waiting list has hit 100,000.
The state’s waitlist has blown out by almost 60 per cent since March 2020, growing from 50,604 to 80,826 in December 2021.
With the latest surgery shutdown, that figure is likely to now be above 100,000.
In contrast, the elective surgery wait list in New South Wales has grown just 2 per cent during the same period.
The Andrews Labor Government last week admitted it has no current plan to get the waitlist under control.
Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier said the government’s mismanagement of the health system has denied Victorians the surgery they desperately need.
“The Minister for Health doesn’t want to reveal the actual number of Victorians on the elective surgery waitlist as that number is so shocking,” she said.
“Victoria’s waitlist was at record levels prior to the pandemic and is growing by more than a thousand a week. That was before the implementation of a statewide Code Brown which further suspended vital surgery.
“Daniel Andrews has been Health Minister or Premier for 11 of the past 15 years. The government simply cannot continue to evade responsibility for the health crisis currently crippling our state.”
Unlike Labor, the Liberals and Nationals have a plan to halve the elective surgery waitlist in its first term.
Only a Matthew Guy Liberals and Nationals Government will get this crisis under control.
Georgie Crozier MP
Shadow Health Minister