AMA’s praise for tackling wait lists

THE Australian Medical Association has commended the state government for its efforts tackling elective surgery waiting lists, but says there needs to be better long-term strategies.

“You’ve got to give credit where it’s due and we feel this government has robustly approached the elective waiting list and brought in good initiatives,” said Tasmanian president of the AMA, Dr John Saul.

Tasmania was the only state in Australia projected to have a reduction in its elective surgery backlog, falling from 2055 in the financial year 2021-22, to a projected 1161 in the current 2022-23 financial year.

But there are still concerns about elective surgery wait times, with the latest government dashboard data showing that knee replacements take on average 680 days and hip replacements 418 days.

Dr Saul said knee and hip replacements were bigger and more complicated surgeries

“(They are usually in) older people with diabetes and heart disease and struggling with fitness levels and potentially overweight, which contributes to longer time in hospital and longer recovery rate,” he said.

“As a GP I’ve seen people waiting up to three years for hip surgery, they’ve been on significantly increased pain medication, and developing diabetes and obesity as a result of these delays,” Dr Saul said.

Labor’s opposition health spokeswoman Anita Dow said having to wait a year or more for surgery was too long.

“Tasmania has an ageing population with a large proportion of people living with pain who have their quality of life suffer waiting for necessary specialist or surgery appointments,” Ms Dow said.

“Currently there are more than 54,000 Tasmanians waiting to see a specialist on the elective surgery waiting list. This is the hidden elective surgery wait list,” Ms Dow said.