Jeremy Rockliff’s record surgery waitlists are impacting the development of Tasmanian children.
Shakoda Turner’s seven-year-old daughter suffers from enlarged tonsils, severe tonsillitis and ear infections and misses weeks of school every year due to reoccurring infections.
These illnesses could be resolved with a simple tonsillectomy, but despite referrals stating Ms Turner’s daughter’s condition is urgent, she has been waiting two years for her daughter’s operation and has been told she will need to wait two more.
Ms Turner’s daughter has a developmental language delay and a severe speech disorder and relies on the speech intervention offered at school. Because she is often away from school with tonsillitis and ear infections, she misses out on crucial school-based intervention.
A support teacher at Ms Turner’s daughter’s school advocating on behalf of the family has written to Labor saying the wait time is too long for a child-like hers, “who is already struggling at school and is in danger of being disengaged from education.”
Health dashboard data shows that Ms Turner’s daughter isn’t alone, with the average category two Ear Nose & Throat Paediatric wait time in the south sitting at 1,665 days.
Generally, more than 57,000 Tasmanians on the waiting list to see a specialist - 32,000 more than when the Liberals were elected nearly 10 years ago.
After nearly a decade of a Liberal government Tasmania’s health system is in crisis. If they haven’t fixed the issues by now, it’s clear they never will.
Anita Dow MP
Shadow Minister for Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing