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Canberra Today 20°/24° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Liberals promise to halve hospital wait times

THE Canberra Liberals are “declaring war” on hospital wait times, saying they’ll halve wait times and turbocharge elective surgeries and emergency departments under a Canberra Liberals government. 

Canberra families cannot afford four more years of deepening crises in the health system, the party says.

“Under Labor, Canberrans are forced to wait almost a year for surgery, and that’s not including the time it takes to get an initial appointment. Some children are waiting up to four years just for an initial appointment with a health specialist,” says a party spokesperson.

“The Canberra Liberals believe there’s a better way. That’s why we’ll bolster capacity to turbocharge our way through 70,000 elective surgeries over the next term of the government.”

Canberra Liberal assistant health spokeswoman Giulia Jones says they’ll inject an extra $120 million to enable more surgeries and halve waiting times in emergency departments.

“The ACT has some of the longest waits for medical attention in the country,” Mrs Jones says.

“We’ll also add 400 more health staff to our highly valued team of health professionals, including 200 more nurses.”

Liberal health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne says not only will the Canberra Liberals turbocharge their way through 70,000 surgeries, they’ll also continue to prepare for more.

“We will be innovative, run our theatres longer, recruit where there are shortages. We will immediately start tackling the backlog caused by years of Labor neglect,” Mrs Dunne says.

“Labor have announced that they only plan to deliver 60,000 elective surgeries over the next four years. This would mean as many as 10,000 Canberrans are left on the waiting list.”

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