Hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders are stuck in a queue waiting for the health care they deserve.
It seems hard to believe, but there are more than 340,000 Queenslanders waiting to see a medical specialist.
These are the Queenslanders who are on a waiting list to see a specialist so that they can then get onto another waiting list, so that one day they will get the treatment they need.
The situation is so serious that doctors warn some people are being forced to wait so long that their medical conditions are worsening significantly.
The number of Queenslanders waiting to just get an appointment with a doctor in a public hospital is now equivalent to the populations of Townsville and Cairns combined.
And I know there are people in Logan who have been impacted by the LNP’s failure to effectively manage waiting lists.
More than 340,000 desperate patients are running out of patience.
The average monthly specialist waitlist is now growing twice as fast under the LNP as it was in the last year of the Labor Government.
The number of people impacted has risen by more than 18.2 per cent in the last year under the LNP.
That’s more than 53,500 extra Queenslanders in limbo under the LNP.
Premier Crisafulli learnt this trick from his mentor Campbell Newman.
The LNP did this last time under him. Now, Premier Crisafulli is leaving Queenslanders to suffer waiting to see a specialist, just like Campbell Newman did.
Fewer Queenslanders are being seen in clinically recommended times.
As the latest government figures reveal, of 30,424 Category 1 patients, one in ten has been on thelist for more than 57 days, almost twice the clinically recommended time.
Category 2 patient numbers have ballooned to nearly 148,000 and one in ten have been on the list for almost 280 days.
This is more than three times the clinically recommended wait time.
Doctors say the longer Category 2 patients wait for treatment, the greater the risk they will become Category 1 patients with more urgent care needs.
Patients waiting to see ear, nose and throat specialists face the longest delays, with one in ten waiting more than 603 days.
Sick Queenslanders are just getting sicker and sicker under David Crisafulli and the LNP government.
Things must change.
