Katy Gallagher is letting us all know she’s made some progress on elective surgery waiting lists:
“Since January 2010, the number of people on the elective surgery waiting list has dropped by 9 per cent and we are confident that a record number of patients will receive their elective surgery in the ACT in 2010-11,” Ms Gallagher said.
The number of people who had elective surgery at ACT public hospitals over the first three months of 2010-11 (2754) was 12 per cent above the 2466 reported for the same period of 2009-10.
“The number of people waiting longer than standard waiting times has already dropped by 17 per cent.
“Two specific examples include urology- down 38 per cent- and neurosurgery- down 63 per cent as at 30 September,” the Health Minister said.
The list numbers are somewhat notional as we know the numbers get manipulated for political gain. But more surgeries is harder to fiddle.
The question then becomes whether the increase in numbers of surgeries performed is ahead of the increasing population?
