Peak medical body AMA warns Cairns patients are facing some of the longest wait times in Queensland

Patients in Cairns are facing some of the longest surgery wait times in Queensland, with one in five urgent cases delayed longer than clinically recommended, Australia’s peak medical body says.

AMA Queensland president Dr Nick Yim said the surgery wait times problem was escalating. Picture: Russell Shakespeare

Patients in Cairns are facing some of the longest surgery wait times in Queensland, with one in five urgent cases delayed longer than clinically recommended, Australia’s peak medical body says.

Australian Medical Association Queensland has demanded urgent action from the state government to address worsening surgical backlogs across the state.

AMA want major reforms to clear the surgical backlog, including extended operating hours, seven-day elective surgeries, and allowing private patients to be treated in public hospitals. Picture: iStock

In Central Queensland, 1463 patients were delayed — nearly double the number from the same time last year. In Mackay there were 320 patients who faced longer waits, an increase of almost half. And in the metro region, almost one in four urgent patients weren’t treated within the recommended timeframe.

AMA Queensland president Dr Nick Yim said the problem was escalating and patients were paying the price with their health.

“Doctors remain distressed by increasingly poor health outcomes and a lack of concerted government action to reverse the decline in regional surgical services,” Dr Yim said.

In February, 6109 patients across all categories within the Queensland health system waited longer than the clinically recommended time for their surgery.

From October to December last year, category 1 (urgent) patients who should receive surgery within 30 days experienced a median wait time of 18 days with 90 per cent waiting 32 days.

About 90 per cent of category 2 patients waited 118 — 28 days more than the recommended wait time.

For category 3 patients (non-urgent), the median wait time was 251 days, with 90 per cent waiting a staggering 379 days — two weeks longer than the recommended wait time.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the government would consider all submissions made by interested parties in the preparation of the 25-26 Budget. Picture, John Gass

AMA Queensland wants the government to adopt the recommendations of its Surgical Wait List Roundtable Action Plan in the upcoming state budget.

Measures include prioritising regional trainee doctors, expanding surgical hours and allowing private patients to be treated in public hospitals.

“This is most concerning for patients needing urology procedures,” Dr Yim said.

“Latest available data indicating more than 10 per cent of category one patients, and more than 20 per cent of all patients, were not treated within clinically recommended time frames.”

The surgery outsourcing program, Surgery Connect, has been in place with Cairns Private Hospital since November 2018. Picture: Brendan Radke

The AMA president said improving rates of planned surgery was key to supporting a healthy and productive Queensland.

“The term ‘elective surgery’ often doesn’t stress how crucial these operations are to patients’ quality of life,” he said.

He said surgeries such as hip, knee or eye problems could prevent people from working, driving or doing other activities required to take care of themselves or loved ones.

“Excessive wait times for planned surgery can also have a detrimental effect on patients’ mental health, an area also straining under unprecedented demand,” Dr Yim said.

“While recent attempts have been made to rectify the issue, including the $100 million funding boost into Surgery Connect, we are yet to see proposed tangible, long-term solutions that increase access to high-demand specialties in our underserved regions.”

The surgery outsourcing program, Surgery Connect, has been in place with Cairns Private Hospital since November 2018 in response to waiting lists – some of which had blown out by several years.

The Surgery Connect project to address the region’s elective surgery waitlist will be paused so plans can be redrawn following forecast budget blowouts. Picture: Brendan Radke

Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the Crisafulli Government was diagnosing, treating and curing Labor’s chronic failures over 10 years.

“Labor’s chaos created a health crisis that the Crisafulli Government will fix,” he said.

“In the short term, this includes investment of $100m to boost access for Queenslanders to elective surgery, delivering 10,000 additional elective surgeries — like cataract surgery, tonsils and adenoids, and knee replacements — by the end of June.”

He said the government would consider all submissions made by interested parties ahead of the 25-26 budget.

In April this year the state government announced the project “essential” to addressing the region’s elective surgery waitlist would be paused, so plans could be redrawn following forecast budget blowouts.

Dr Yin said reallocation of resources was essential to ensure the right medical practitioners, specialists and allied health workers were going to the regions where they were needed most.

“This means prioritising doctors from rural and regional areas in specialist trainee selection processes and increases in specialist and subspecialty training in the regions,” he said.

AMA also want major reforms to clear the surgical backlog, including extended operating hours, seven-day elective surgeries and allowing private patients to be treated in public hospitals.

Originally published as Peak medical body AMA warns Cairns patients are facing some of the longest wait times in Queensland