Tens of thousands of public patients sent to private hospitals for elective surgery

Tens of thousands of Queenslanders on public elective surgery waitlists are being transferred to private hospitals for treatment, as the state government ramps up efforts to clear the mammoth surgery backlog.

Tens of thousands of Queenslanders on public elective surgery waitlists are being transferred to private hospitals for treatment, as the state government ramps up efforts to clear the mammoth surgery backlog.

More than 110,000 elective surgeries including gastroenterology, ophthalmology, and ear, nose and throat surgeries were performed at public hospitals during the 2022-23 financial year, with the government outsourcing a further 24,000 to private care.

While 78 per cent of patients were treated within the clinically recommended time frame, 6 per cent waited longer than a year for treatment.

Alarmingly, there has also been a steady increase of patients who have died while waiting for a surgery, with nearly 1000 recorded as dead or non-contactable over 12 months.

A total of 182,659 Queenslanders were on emergency and elective surgery waitlists last year, including 1300 emergency admissions. Of those, 22,000 were transferred to “another hospital’s” waitlist.

An extra 12,000 Queenslanders were removed from the waitlist compared to the year prior, however, with an additional 11,000 added to the waitlist, the government is barely keeping up with demand on top of the surgery backlog after all elective surgeries were put on pause during the pandemic.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman will on Sunday announce a $100m funding boost to progress the government’s surgery connect program, which had seen Queensland deliver the highest number of on time surgeries in the country.

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman. Picture: Evan Morgan

“Queensland’s high performance is the envy of the nation, with other states now looking to improve their own elective surgery waitlists with similar programs,” she said.

“We know that by partnering with private providers, we can reduce patient waitlists and, in some cases, treat Queenslanders closer to home.

“It means thousands of Queenslanders can get the surgeries and healthcare they needed sooner.”

The highest volume of outsourced treatments to private facilities in the past financial year was 5180 for urgent eye surgery.

Another 2350 public patients went to a private hospital for gut-related surgeries, 2340 for orthopaedic surgery, and 2090 for ear, nose and throat surgeries.

Just over 2000 urology, 1550 general and 1450 gynaecology surgeries were also privately provided to public patients. LNP health spokeswoman Ros Bates accused the government of running “countless” scare campaigns about privatising healthcare while “doing it by stealth”.

“Queenslanders are dying on the waitlist, travelling to other cities or going private because of a health system in crisis and a government with no solutions,” she said.

“Queenslanders deserve openness and transparency on how surgery waiting lists are being managed by this Labor government.”