It’s heart wrenching and wrong that category one cancer patients are waiting months to get surgery or treatment on the Sunshine Coast that should happen within 30 days. You can’t blame COVID for that.
The State Government has lost control of health and they’ve cut funding at the frontline. A Question on Notice (QON) in Parliament asked by Shadow Minister for Health and Ambulance Services, Ros Bates, revealed the efficiency and productivity dividends hit on Queensland Hospitals has resulted in more than a billion dollars being cut from the health system, with the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service seeing more than $124 million wiped.
Queensland continues to have the worst ambulance ramping in Australia, emergency departments are overwhelmed, and elective wait surgery waitlists continue to surge.
The State Government has destroyed the health system and now they want seven years to fix it.
We are seeing frontline staff working double shifts, whilst the State Government is taking money out of the health system. The cutbacks are severe. If these cutback to our hospitals have occurred, where is the savings?
This money should be invested into fixing the hospital system, not making it worse.
As Ros Bates said: ‘patient care must be the top priority rather than cutting funding from a system under immense strain.’
See table below – the Sunshine Coast is positioned 4th worst in the State.
| PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY DIVIDENDS | |||
| Hospital & Health Services | Total Efficiency Dividends Since 2015/16 | Total Productivity Dividends Since 2015/16 | Combined TOTAL |
| Sunshine Coast | $44,933,769 | $79,112,000 | $124,045,769 |
Source:
Productivity Dividend QON: /tableOffice/questionsAnswers/2022/516-2022.pdf
Efficiency Dividend QON: /tableoffice/questionsanswers/2021/1260-2021.pdf
