$45.5 million elective surgery boost welcomed

AMA Tasmania Vice President Mr Scott Fletcher said, "our elective surgery lists are at an all-time high, and any increase in funding for elective surgery is welcomed as this will help us to manage that.  

We know Tasmanians are sitting on these waiting lists for far too long.  In the interest of those patients, the AMA welcomes the additional health funding but would like to see this develop into long-term sustained funding that allows appropriate planning and recruitment of staff.  

In these COVID times, it may well be challenging to get the locum staff required to help provide the surgery funded under this one-off boost. 

Mr Scott Fletcher added, "a permanent increase in funding would let the health sector better plan and resource for the management of elective surgery within our state and alleviate our heavy reliance on locums. We know that investing in your workforce is better in the long term for Tasmanians. 

While working through our elective surgery waiting lists would not be possible in the public system alone, we need to ensure the public system is not merely left with complex cases. 

Any Tasmanians left languishing on a record-breaking blown-out waiting list regardless of their category is in real and severe threat of developing co-morbidities, creating yet more pressure on the health system.  

Only sustained funding over the long term will assist in building public hospital staffing capacity to enable these waiting lists to be addressed and allow consistency in our delivery to help ongoing management. >>>ENDS