Tasmanians on the elective surgery waiting list in 2019-20 collectively lost $120.1 million in income and expenses as they waited for surgery, according to economic analysis.
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An report from Wells Economic Analysis, provided to Huon Labor MLC Bastian Seidel and tabled in the Legislative Council this month, further says the $120.1 million sum understated the actual private cost of queues since detailed patient-level data was unavailable.
It also said the analysis did not include the waiting time between a clinician's referral and admission to the waiting list which would also increase the estimated private cost of queueing.
The report said those on the waiting list bore costs primarily related to visits to a general practitioner and on pharmaceuticals for untreated conditions, carers, and from constraints on paid employment.
There were 15,195 patients on the elective surgery waiting list in 2019-20 who waited a median wait time of 55 days.
Wells Economic Analysis said in its report the mean number of waiting days was likely to be substantially greater than the median figure.
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"In the absence of a detailed distribution of waiting days, the latter is the measure used in the present calculation," it said.
"If instead the mean is taken to be 70 rather than 55, annual cost would increase from $120 million $152 million."
The analysis of the 2019-20 waiting list showed 44.3 per cent of patients waited longer than the clinically recommended time for surgery.
Dr Seidel said in Parliament the $120.1 million figure was for surgery alone and did not account for patients waiting to see an oncologist or waiting to see specialists.
"We have Tasmanians dying waiting on hospital waiting lists to urgently see a specialist or to have urgent surgery," he said.
"We have Tasmanians dying in emergency departments waiting to be admitted to hospital.
"The cause of death is never 'waiting for care'."
The state government has allocated $196.4 million in the 2021-22 budget towards elective surgery.
It is expected this will fund more than 30,000 elective surgeries and endoscopies.
In this year's state elective campaign, the government committed to employing 280 extra full-time equivalent staff to support the increased surgeries and other services.
As of July 2021, there were 11,007 people on Tasmania's elective surgery waiting list.
There were 1033 patients on the category one waiting list.
Patients on this list should be treated within 30 days.
There were 4451 on the category two waiting list, who should ordinarily be seen within 90 days, and 5523 patients on the category three waiting list, who should be treated within 365 days.
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Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
