Hospital surgery list cut

THE State Government says elective surgery waiting lists have been slashed at Dandenong Hospital over the past 12 months.
The latest Your Hospitals report shows that elective surgery waiting lists have been reduced by about 500 people at Dandenong Hospital since the same period last year.
The total number of elective surgery patients on the list stands at 1530, down by 511 from the previous year.
Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said the good results were reflected across the state, with the State Government slashing the statewide list from 40,301 in 1999 to 37,197 this year.
But opposition health spokeswoman Helen Shardey accused the State Government of slashing numbers by failing to place people on elective surgery waiting lists when they needed to be.
Ms Shardey said an Auditor General’s report had shown that up to 20,000 people in Victoria could not get an appointment with a medical specialist that would lead to them being placed on elective surgery waiting lists.