Australian Medical Association state branch president Helen McArdle said Tasmanians have every right to be concerned with the Health Department's latest dashboard data, which shows elective surgery waiting lists have now blown out to more than 12,000 people.

Released on Thursday, the quarterly figures show more than 300 Tasmanians were added to elective surgery waitlists between October and December last year, bringing the total number to 12,086. This includes 1051 category 1 patients, 4494 category 2 and 6541 category 3.

Ms McArdle said it was obvious the state's health system was under enormous pressure - something she said had been further compounded by the impacts of COVID-19. However, she said it was a national trend.

"The system itself is a good system, it's just the demand outweighs the supply. The more people who present to the public system needing care, adds to the waiting list," she said.

"We [Tasmania] might appear as one of the worst performing, but everyone is performing badly. We are a small state and it's very difficult to find additional funds. I know both from a government and a hospital perspective, enormous amount of work goes on to manage waiting lists and to manage patients in a timely manner, but all those factors come into play."

According to the latest figures, in December only 56 per cent of patients were admitted for their surgery within the clinically recommended time frames. The medium wait time for an ambulance has also increased to an average of 14.2 minutes.

With a state election set for May 1, Ms McArdle said health would once again undoubtedly be a major focus. However, she said there was also a need for a greater emphasis on preventative strategies.

"I think everything comes down to funding in the end, because if you've got more funding you can build infrastructure and you can employ more staff," she said.

"But there also has to be an emphasis on out of hospital care - because if patients can be managed outside the hospital, then you free up beds. And if patients can be discharged in a more timely fashion, then you free up more beds. So it's a combination of a lot of factors."

The state government committed an additional $45.5 million for elective surgeries in the last budget, aimed at boosting capacity within the Tasmanian Health Service. It also recently announced a $5 million plan to deliver up to 20,0000 oral health treatments. Responding to the latest dashboard figures, Health Minister Sarah Courtney said nearly 500 more surgeries had been completed for the October-December quarter in 2020 than in 2019.

"There were more than 1500 elective surgeries performed in Tasmania during both October and November 2020, the highest monthly number of elective surgeries in recent times," she said. "This high volume of surgeries has been reflected in what is the lowest admitted median wait times since April 2020, with December producing an admitted median wait time of 45 days for elective surgery, compared with 87 days in June."

However, Labor health spokesman Bastian Seidel said the data showed the "grim reality" facing Tasmania's health sector.

"The health dashboard shows the elective surgery wait list has increased 71 per cent since the 2018 election, blowing out to 12,086," he said. "The outpatient waitlist has increased 76 per cent from the 2018 election to 51,388, which is double what it was when the Liberals were elected in 2014. Just 57 per cent of emergency patients are being seen on time which is simply gobsmacking."

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