Patients 'suffering from budget cuts'

A BLOWOUT in hospital waiting times shows patients are beginning to suffer from the NSW government's $3 billion in health spending cuts, the NSW opposition says.

Labor MPs used question time on Thursday to hammer the government over the latest figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

The new data revealed the number of patients forced to wait longer than four hours for treatment last year increased by 15,890 from 2011.

The median waiting time for elective surgery in NSW hospitals blew out to 50 days - the longest of any state.

Mr Robertson said the figures were a direct reflection of the billions of dollars in savings the state government was making in health.

"Will you reverse your $3 billion cut to the health system ... when 15,000 people don't get seen in the benchmark time?" he asked the premier.

Mr O'Farrell replied there had been "a record budget this year" of $18.3 billion.

"And we are determined that as many of these dollars won't end up in bureaucracy but on the front line ...

"I would have thought that was a sensible way to go."

Health Minister Jillian Skinner denied there had been any cuts to the health system.

"It is the case that over four years $2.2 billion in efficiency savings will be made in health to be reinvested in frontline services," Ms Skinner said in a statement.

"This money will be staying within the NSW health system and is not a 'cut'."

But opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald said it was impossible to make the changes to hospital budgets without impacting on emergency department waiting times and surgery waiting lists.

"Patients are suffering as a result," he said.

Only 61.1 per cent of patients presenting to emergency departments were treated within four hours last year, down from 61.8 per cent in 2009/10 and well short of the 69 per cent target.

"In real figures, this equates to 15,890 additional patients forced to wait longer than four hours in a hospital emergency department for treatment," Mr MacDonald said.

NSW hospitals also performed worse than any other state in Australia when it came to elective surgery waiting times, with patients forced to wait a median 50 days compared with 36 days in Victoria, 27 in Queensland and 30 in Western Australia.

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