Five private providers, including two based in Victoria, were selected by the government in October to perform more than $25million in elective surgeries to long-wait patients.

The tender for the panel opened in April, closed in May and was scheduled to be announced in July.

A Tasmanian Health Service spokesman said it was expected the panel would deliver surgeries ‘‘soon’’ – more than three months after the successful providers were revealed.

‘‘The Tasmanian Health Service is working through a volume of surgical cases to be put through the private sector panel,’’ he said. 

‘‘This includes an assessment of which cases should be priorities and the hospital and location best suited to provide the procedure.’’

More than 8470 patients are on the elective surgery waiting list, according to the government’s Health System Dashboard.

The most recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report showed Tasmanians faced the longest wait for elective surgeries – an average of 55 days compared with  the national average of 35.

Former Launceston General Hospital director of surgery Berni Einoder said the $25.9million in funding from the Commonwealth would have been better spent in the public system.

He said the government could not rely on short-term fixes for long-term issues.

‘‘We need adequate staff, adequate infrastructure and adequate funding,’’ Professor Einoder said.

The THS spokesman said more than 800 elective surgeries were delivered using pre-existing private sector arrangements in the first half of 2015-16, with ‘‘significant numbers’’ of patients to be treated under those arrangements and the panel arrangements in the next six months.

‘‘The additional Commonwealth funding has also been utilised to provide 500 endoscopies for long-waiting patients,’’ he said.