AMA (WA) welcomes Australian Government waiting list promise.

The Australian Medical Association (WA) today welcomed the commitment by Health Minister Jim McGinty to include all public hospitals, including Joondalup and Peel, on the state's elective surgery wait list.

Mr McGinty made the commitment on ABC radio when talking to AMA President Dr Paul Skerritt and host Liam Bartlett. (ABC720 28/7/04)

Mr McGinty said: "I have instructed the Health Department in future that those privately managed public hospitals (Joondalup and Peel) should also be included."

"Mr McGinty said he expected this to happen when figures are released for July and Western Australians should have a much better idea of how many people are waiting for elective surgery and how many people are waiting longer than is clinically desirable," Dr Skerritt said.

"However this is only the first step in finding out the real waiting list figures. The next step is to include those on the waiting lists to see specialists at hospitals - the so called waiting lists to get on to the waiting lists."

"At the moment patients are not included on the waiting list until they have seen a surgeon at hospital and sometimes this can take months, if not years."

"The Auditor General has regularly criticised the Health Department waiting list figures as grossly inaccurate."

"Doctors and hospital administrators cannot plan for the future if figures are inaccurate and compiled to present the best possible picture for Government as they are at the moment," Dr Skerritt said.