Burnett MP Stephen Bennett slams WBHHS over hospital wait times

MPs have slammed wait times for elective surgery amid surges in both Bundaberg and Hervey Bay, but the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service claims it has a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Burnett MP Stephen Bennett has reacted with shock at new figures on elective surgery wait times across the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service.

Damning new figures have revealed patients across the Wide Bay are facing ballooning wait times for elective surgery wait lists at Bundaberg Hospital increased 34 per cent in 12 months.

Hervey Bay Hospital recorded an 8 per cent increase in the last quarter alone.

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Shadow health spokeswoman Ros Bates said 1157 patients were now on the waitlist for elective surgery in Bundaberg and 809 patients in Hervey Bay.

“Wide Bay residents deserve better,” she said.

Member for Burnett Stephen Bennett lashed out at the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service, accusing the organisation of releasing data that was sanitised and delayed amid what he termed “years of blow-outs”.

“What we're really saying is, you need to acknowledge, government, that you have a crisis, and we need to continually stop covering it up and making sure that people that have continually been pushed back down waiting lists do get the services they need,” he said.

Mr Bennett said the WBHHS was losing doctors and nurses because of a “rotten” culture, and said the service needed to prioritise putting doctors and nurses in charge, real-time triaging and releasing data on time so issues could be dealt with.

“Yvette D’Ath publicly promises more money and beds but she hasn’t made any progress to reduce elective surgery waitlists,” Ms Bates said.

“These aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. These are Queenslanders desperate to have surgery to improve their quality of life.

“All Queenslanders deserve a world class health system no matter where they live.”

Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service chief executive Debbie Carroll laid blame on the pandemic, saying the unprecedented event had caused a bottleneck.

“During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, non-urgent outpatient appointments across Australia were temporarily halted to prioritise urgent care and for Covid-19 patients,” she said.

“When hospitals restarted non-urgent referrals, there was a significant influx of people being added to specialist outpatient waiting lists across Australia.

“Another factor influencing patient numbers is the Wide Bay experiencing an increase in our population in the last year, particularly older people who may require additional support from the health service.”

Ms Carroll said she was proud of the health service’s success rate in treating the most urgent cases.

“Considering the 34 per cent increase in elective surgery numbers at Bundaberg Hospital, it’s incredibly impressive that 100% of the most urgent category one patients were within their clinically-recommended waiting time at the end of December 2022,” she said.

“Our WBHHS team continues to implement innovative solutions to manage the extra demand for elective surgery and to minimise waiting times for our patients. This includes working with our private hospitals to ensure there are more elective surgery cases performed to reduce the wait times for our patients.”

Originally published as Burnett MP Stephen Bennett slams WBHHS over hospital wait times