Launceston man Michael Murrell furious at growing outpatient waitlist

Unable to stand, Michael Murrell sat outside the hospital's Charles Street entrance for three hours with the words brandished on a home-made sign.

The 79-year-old is among the more than 51,000 Tasmanians waiting for an outpatient appointment.

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But he's been told it could be up to two years before he receives surgery for a hip replacement.

"I can hardly walk for 50 metres without pain, yet I am being told I am non-urgent," he said.

"I have no quality of life ... I can't do anything around the house.

"I just want the government to know that this isn't good enough."

After visiting his GP in November last year, X-rays revealed Mr Murrell's hip joints have significantly deteriorated as the result of osteoarthritis.

In December he was placed on the outpatient waiting list for an appointment at the LGH's orthopaedic clinic.

Considered non-urgent, according to the latest Health Department data the average wait time for category 3 outpatients is 439 days.

Across all categories it's 389 days. Indicative data (75th per centile of time waiting) as of October 2020 for the state's North shows urgent patients are waiting 36 days on average to visit the orthopaedic clinic. For non-urgent patients it's 154 days.

As of December 2020 there was also more than 12,000 Tasmanians awaiting elective surgery across the state.

While recognising there are people "worse off" than him, Mr Murrell said no one should live in pain.

"I had a fall last month and had to be rushed to the hospital," he said. "At this stage I will die waiting for surgery."

In November last year the state government committed an additional $45.5 million in an effort to ease the backlog of elective surgeries.

On top of $15 million funding from the Commonwealth, it was expected to help deliver an additional 8500 elective surgeries over the next 18 months.

Health Minister Sarah Courtney said the funding had provided a "huge boost" to capacity, with an estimated 19,000 surgeries this financial.

"The latest health dashboard is reflective of this with nearly 500 additional surgeries completed for the October-December quarter in 2020," she said.

Ms Courtney said she didn't want to see any Tasmanians waiting too long for care.

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