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Patients in pain waiting more than seven years to see a specialist: Hurn

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The Hon. Ashton Hurn, Shadow Minister for Health (SA), Media Release, 30 January 2023

Record ramping under Peter Malinauskas continues to have a ripple effect throughout the health system, as new government data exposes that some South Australian patients have a gruelling wait of more than seven years to see a specialist.

Southern suburbs residents appear to have the longest wait, in a clear postcode prejudice, where locals could be waiting over four years to see a specialist while patients in other parts of the city have no wait.

The concerning wait times were revealed in the Sunday Mail and show blowouts of:

  • Ophthalmology – 7.5 years
  • Urology – 7.4 years
  • Gastroenterology – 7.1 years

Shadow Minister for Health Ashton Hurn said these wait times go hand-in-hand with record ramping where patients are regularly forced to wait more than 24 hours for a bed.

“Imagine needing to see a specialist and knowing that in a modern country like Australia you can spend up to seven and a half years waiting to be seen,” Mrs Hurn said.

“People are being forced to wait extraordinary lengths of time – years in some cases – just to be assessed and meanwhile our health system continues to deteriorate under Peter Malinauskas.

“Ramping has skyrocketed on his watch and his failure to fix it, as promised, is having crushing consequences for our health system and unfortunately South Australians are paying the price.

“Let’s not forget when Labor left office in 2018, some patients were stranded on waitlists for 16 years. The former Liberal Government untangled this mess making huge inroads to ensure patients were seen quicker, bit it’s clear Peter Malinauskas is unravelling all that hard work.”

“Peter Malinauskas needs to explain what action Labor is taking to improve patient wait times across the health system – because at the moment it’s not good enough.”

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