New figures released under Freedom of Information (FOI) by Canberra Health Services (CHS) show an alarming 7,620 patients are waiting for elective surgeries in the ACT, an increase of 30 per cent since September 2022.

The figures released to Shadow Minister for Health Leanne Castley also show that over 2200 of these patients or 30 per cent are waiting longer than clinically recommended, up from 23 per cent in 2022.

Ms Castley said even more concerning is that there are a further 1,233 patients who for clinical or personal reasons are ‘not ready for care’ which means there are actually 8,853 Canberrans on the elective surgery waitlists.

“This is utterly disgraceful. Despite the Labor-Greens government setting a target for only 430 patients to wait longer than clinically recommended, it is not even close to that commitment,” Ms Castley said.

“One of the main reasons for the blowout in elective surgery waitlists is the 12-year delay for the Canberra Hospital expansion, which is still not complete and three elections late.

“Another reason is Labor’s abandonment of its 2020 election promise to build a $21 million elective surgery Centre at the University of Canberra.

“Let’s not forget the Minister also promised at the last election to complete over 60,000 elective surgeries in four years and it appears they will not meet that target either. Going into the election in October this year what is clear is that you can’t trust any promises this government makes.

“More and more Canberrans are living in pain and discomfort, while waitlists continue to grow. 38 per cent of urgent urology patients and 64 per cent of semi-urgent orthopaedic surgery patients are now waiting longer than clinically recommended.”

Ms Castley said her FOI requested any projections of the impact that completion of the Critical Services Building would have on elective surgery waitlists, but no such documents were identified despite the Minister saying the new building would reduce wait lists.

“Because of the Digital Health Record debacle, it has been some time since CHS has provided complete figures of the numbers of patients waiting for elective surgery.

“Now we get something approximating a dashboard which shows waiting lists for patients ‘ready for care’ for particular elective surgeries, which doesn’t show their median wait times and which introduces a new category of patients who are ‘not ready for care’.

“Exactly how these latest figures relate to previous figures is unclear, but one thing’s for sure, waitlists for elective surgery are continuing to worsen,” Ms Castley concluded.