More pain on long waiting lists

AN OPPOSITION MP has hit out over the waiting times elective surgery patients are being forced to endure at Casey Hospital.
South Eastern Metropolitan MLC Gordon Rich-Phillips has outlined his concern over the latest Your Hospitals report released last week.
Mr Rich-Phillips said more than 550 people were on the elective surgery waiting list at Casey Hospital.
“It is not good enough that only four out of every 10 Casey residents on the Category 2 waiting list will be treated within the government’s own required time frame,” he said.
“When you consider that a Category 1 patient is someone requiring surgery for a life threatening condition, I think it is fair to assume that most of the residents on the Category 2 waiting list are in a great deal of pain and discomfort.”
Health Minister Daniel Andrews said Casey Hospital had achieved many of its targets.
“At a time when hospitals are treating more patients than ever before, they are also treating more of them within the benchmark times,” Mr Andrews said.
He said a $60 million funding boost earlier this year was starting to have an impact on elective surgery waiting lists.
“There were almost 2000 fewer patients waiting for surgery at the end of June 2008 than there were at the end of December 2007 – a five per cent reduction in just six months,” Mr Andrews said.