1/9/2010

Four month wait for surgery at Tweed Hospital as NSW Labor fails to spend Federal waiting list cash

Patients are now suffering on average four months before getting surgery at the Tweed Hospital at the same time as the NSW Labor Government has failed to spend $130 million of federal money specifically earmarked to reduce NSW hospital waiting lists, according to Tweed Nationals MP Geoff Provest.

“Two new reports have just been published: Access Economics says NSW has only allocated $54 million of $184 million from Canberra for cutting surgery waiting times, while NSW Health has just admitted the average waiting time for elective surgery at the Tweed Hospital is now four months,” Mr Provest said.

The damning NSW Health ‘Yellow Book’ monthly report also concedes the Tweed Hospital Emergency Department is failing to treat patients in time in three out of five categories.

“Only 73 per cent of patients with imminently or potentially life threatening conditions are being treated within the benchmark times, despite the excellent work of our overstretched and hardworking Tweed medical professionals” Mr Provest said.

“Meanwhile there is this huge bag of Federal cash which is just sitting in the State Government’s bank account.”

“At best the NSW Labor Government is incompetent, at worst it is being callous – either way Tweed patients are suffering unnecessarily.”

Mr Provest said the NSW Health report also showed the Tweed Hospital is now treating more patients than Lismore Base – 28,000 compared 24,000 – yet the Tweed Hospital was getting less resources.

“I don’t want to take away anything from Lismore, but its average waiting time is only three months, and I suspect that discrepancy is largely because the North Coast health bureaucracy is based in Lismore.”

“The sooner we get a return to local hospital boards, the sooner the Tweed will get its fair share,” Mr Provest concluded.