The West has accused some of the 54,000 people waiting for a medical appointment of resorting to lying to get on multiple wait-lists ("Patients lie to jump surgery queue", 29 June 2015). The blaming continues with accusations of using false addresses to get duplicate referrals as well as "hospital shopping".
Our question is: Why is there a need to resort to such desperate measures?
With the opening of Fiona Stanley Hospital, stress on the public hospital system was meant to ease. Waitlists for surgeries were meant to grow shorter, ambulance ramping was to cease and a myriad of other promises were made that would alleviate the stresses on our nurses and hospital workers.
But again, because of budget cuts due to the Barnett government's wasteful spending, these stresses are only getting worse.
Let's not blame the victim here. Let's not blame the person in pain. Let's not blame the overworked medical staff.
Let's point the finger at those who should be accountable for this mess.
What's needed here is more funding to clear this backlog and get these waitlists attended to within manageable timeframes, not more cuts and job losses. With the recent increase in population and the growth in our ageing population, these problems are just going to get worse.
We need a strong vision to alleviate the pressure on our hospitals and get our community the health care it needs.
And that's no lie.
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