TASMANIANS deemed in urgent need of specialist consultation are waiting up to 956 days for an appointment, leading an expert to warn that lives are at risk unless action is taken.
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Outpatient clinic waiting lists released by the Department of Health and Human Services reveal that many people seeking an appointment at Northern clinics wait more than 100 days for an appointment with their specialist.
Neurology patients classed as Category 1, or urgent, waited the longest at an average of 422 days.
The situation was worse for people needing a consultation in the South, with a quarter of urgent gastroenterology and liver patients waiting almost two years for their first appointment.
Similarly, one-quarter of Category 1 Hepatitis C patients waited an average of 530 days to see a specialist, and 25 per cent of neurosurgery patients waited 494 days.
The figure blew out to a 956-day wait for one-quarter of people in urgent need of physical rehabilitation.
Health Minister Michael Ferguson said it was no secret that Tasmania's health system was broken and said the government had inherited an unacceptably long outpatient waiting list it was working to reduce.
"We are reforming the Health System, and our Implementation Plan details how we are tacking waiting lists and elective surgery cancellations to provide better care to Tasmanians," he said.
"But there is still more work to be done so that Tasmanians can receive the treatment they deserve."
But independent health policy analyst Martyn Goddard said the figures represented an underfunded system.
"These figures indicate an enormous amount of pain and suffering," he said.
"These are just average wait times - how many people are waiting the longest?
"This sort of thing is endangering lives."
Health and Community Services Union assistant state secretary Robbie Moore said the wait times were a result of health budget cuts and called on the government to further invest in the sector.