Statement from AMA (NSW) president Dr Kathryn Austin

In today’s Bureau of Health Information quarterly performance report (October-December 2024), we see an appalling 220 per cent increase in the number of people waiting longer than clinically recommended for elective surgery than this time last year.

This represents 6842 people – up from 2133 – waiting longer than they should for surgery to alleviate pain or investigate potentially serious conditions.

There are now more than 100,000 people waiting for elective surgery in this state – this is close to the record peak during the pandemic when people were unable to access elective surgery.

And we have almost 68,000 people leaving an emergency department before starting or completing treatment – up 6 per cent on the same quarter last year.

Alarmingly, about a third were in triage category 3 – classified as having an urgent condition needing treatment within 30 minutes.

This is unacceptable and a clear indication that NSW Health is not coping.

This is what happens when a health system does not have enough doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers to care for its community.

We again call on NSW Health to appropriately invest in its workforce so our hospitals can recruit and retain doctors and other healthcare workers to meet demand, and to better fund services.

We call on both parties to make public hospitals a key issue in the Federal election with a commitment by the Commonwealth to provide 50 per cent of public hospital funding.

Our exhausted health workforce cannot continue to do more with less.

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