The Queensland ALP Opposition has claimed Redland Hospital is “on the sick list” under the Crisafulli LNP Government, pointing to new data showing rising waitlists for specialist appointments and elective surgeries.
According to the Opposition, the latest health performance data shows that since the LNP came to power, an additional 2,000 patients in the Redlands are now waiting to see a medical specialist.
The Opposition says more than half of those patients are not being treated within clinically recommended timeframes.
Patients waiting to see a specialist must first secure that appointment before potentially being placed on a separate waitlist for surgery or further treatment.
Doctors warn that longer waits for treatment can increase the risk that a patient’s condition deteriorates and may require more complex interventions.
The ALP also claims the elective surgery waitlist at Redland Hospital has grown over the past year and that fewer surgeries are being performed compared with the period before the LNP came to power.
Further, the Opposition says the proportion of patients not seen within clinically recommended timeframes when presenting at Redland Hospital’s Emergency Department has also increased.
Shadow Health Minister Mark Bailey said the figures raised serious concerns.
“The people of Redlands deserve so much better than this,” he said.
“David Crisafulli and his LNP Government have utterly failed to live up to their promise to improve Redlands’ health services.
“Waitlists for specialist appointments and wait times for elective surgeries are getting worse.
“These are the sickly symptoms of a health system that is being systematically underfunded.”
Lytton MP Joan Pease said patients waiting for treatment were being left in difficult circumstances.
“My heart goes out to all those people stuck on a waitlist waiting for the specialist appointments and treatments they need,” she said.
“This failure to invest in health by the Crisafulli Government is cruel and has real world consequences.
“People who wait longer for treatment are at greater risk of getting even sicker.
“I will never relent in highlighting the failures of David Crisafulli and his LNP Government because the consequences for people in need of proper medical help are too profound.”
Springwood MP Mick de Brenni also criticised the Government’s handling of health services.
“The people of Redlands have been let down badly by David Crisafulli and his LNP Government,” he said.
“David Crisafulli talked such a big game prior to the election, promised so much when it came to health services in the Redlands region, but instead under David Crisafulli health service delivery has gone backwards.
“It didn’t have to be like this, but it is because David Crisafulli broke a promise.
“David Crisafulli hasn’t followed through on his commitment to the people of Redlands to deliver better health services.
“It is David Crisafulli’s failure and his disgrace.”
A spokeswoman for Health and Ambulance Services Minister Tim Nicholls rejected the opposition’s claims, saying the previous government was responsible for the pressures facing the hospital and that the current government was working to stabilise the system.
“During their decade of decline, Mark Bailey and Labor left Redland Hospital on life support, with record ambulance ramping and a spiralling elective surgery waitlist,” she said.
“The Crisafulli Government is delivering on its election commitments to reduce ambulance ramping and stabilise the elective surgery waitlist, but we know much more needs to be done to heal Labor’s Health Crisis.
“Under Labor, ambulance ramping at Redland Hospital hit a record 72.7 per cent in July 2022, while the elective surgery waitlist grew to 1,229 in February 2024.”
