ELDERLY Brimbank residents say they are being left to languish on elective surgery waiting lists due to health funding cuts.
Sunny West Seniors Group president Alexander Francis said vulnerable residents were waiting up to six years for hip surgery, living each day in unbearable pain.
“Old people have a life to live too,” he said. “Many senior citizens face health problems that come with growing older.
“The more funding the government cuts from the public health service, the more elderly people live their lives in constant pain.”
Mr Francis knew of many residents who remained isolated in their homes as they waited for surgery. Some couldn’t sleep, walk or undertake day to day activities due to their physical pain.
“What kind of a quality of life is that?” he said. “It’s not just elderly people either; it’s children and families in Brimbank who can’t afford the cost of private health cover.”
Sunshine West resident Faye Baker, 74, said she waited 18 months to have her broken wrist repaired. “I was in so much pain because the bone had broken but it hadn’t healed properly,” she said.
“I had to keep telling the hospital I needed to get it repaired. It’s ludicrous. If you’re a public patient and it isn’t life-threatening they think you can just cope with it.”
Mr Francis said he had begun a petition calling on the state government to reinstate health funding as the federal government had done late last month.
The Weekly reported last week that the federal government will reinstate $107 million cut from Victorian hospitals and had promised more than $6.6 million to Sunshine, Western and Williamstown hospitals.
But late last year the state government announced it would cut $616 million from health funding over the next four years, including $37 million from Western Health.
A report released by the Department of Health last week revealed elective surgery waiting lists soared by 4587 from December 31, 2011 to December 31 last year.
Health Minister David Davis claimed the increase was due to federal government cuts.
He said while more people were waiting for elective surgeries, the report showed the most urgent category 1 patients still received treatment within 30 days.
