The Cook Labor Government’s waitlist “blitz” is a bandaid response to seven years of rampant blowouts in elective surgery waiting times.

Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam said while she acknowledged the belated attempt to address the issue, there appeared to be very little detail on how the plan would be implemented.

“While the headline sounds good, we know chronic shortages of specialist staff have been an ongoing issue for many years. Questions need to be answered about where the staff are coming from to perform these surgeries, when will they start and what those measurable reduction targets are,” Ms Mettam said. 

“Despite the government’s attempt to blame COVID, there are still 9,000 more people on the waitlist than when Labor came to power and the bulk of this blow out occurred before COVID.

“In March 2017, there were 19,000 people on the publicly available waitlist, in March 2020 before COVID there were 26,000 on the waitlist and last month there were still more than 28,000 waiting for surgery.

“After seven years of inaction, the Health Minister is only now turning her attention to it.” 

Ms Mettam said the figures above were the publicly available figures.  The government’s data included non-reportable procedures, which showed the issue was much bigger, with more than 45,000 people on the waitlist. 

“This is a government that has absolutely dropped the ball when it comes to the health system and has been asleep at the wheel in delivering this critical service,” she said.

“Just because a surgery is elective does not mean it is optional. Patients requiring elective surgeries are often unable to work, have chronic pain and their conditions can often become more acute the longer they are left untreated.”

Ms Mettam said the number of elective surgeries that have been cancelled since the WA Labor Government came to power had also blown out by 108 per cent since 2017-18. 

“In 2022-23 there were 25,284 surgeries cancelled across WA, a 108 per cent increase from 2017-18 when there were 12,123 surgeries cancelled*,” Ms Mettam said.

“The WA Labor Government has consistently tried to blame COVID for the blow out in elective surgeries being cancelled but the latest figures show the number of cancellations has been growing year on year and is now more than during 2020-21 and 2021-22. 

“The lockdowns are over yet the health system remains in chaos as a result of the mismanagement of this government.  

“The Cook Labor Government’s failure to maintain our public hospitals is worse than incompetent. It demonstrates this government does not know how to govern.”

“Children are waiting for more than a year to have their hearing restored, ambulances continue to be ramped outside our hospitals, every month thousands of people are having their surgery cancelled, and nurses are working double and even triple shifts to maintain safe staffing levels. 

“It is simply not good enough; our community deserves better.”