HIDDEN WAITING LISTS EXPOSE HUMAN COST OF LABOR’S HEALTH CRISIS

The case of an 82-year-old man struggling to walk because of severe spinal pain has exposed both the human cost of the Cook Labor Government’s health crisis and its ongoing failure to reveal the true extent of WA’s outpatient waiting lists.

Peter Muckett was referred to Royal Perth Hospital’s spinal outpatient clinic but received a letter advising the service was “experiencing extreme demand with a long waiting list, which is impacting negatively on our ability to care for our patients”.

Mr Muckett was not accepted for surgery.Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam said the case raised serious questions about whether overwhelming demand across WA hospitals was preventing patients from accessing timely specialist assessment and care.

“What an appalling and insensitive response to an 82-year-old man in severe pain who is barely able to walk,” she said.

“Royal Perth Hospital’s own letter admits extreme demand and a long waiting list are affecting its ability to care for patients.

“That raises an obvious and deeply concerning question: how many other West Australians are being delayed or denied access to specialist care because the system simply cannot cope?

“The Minister cannot brush this off as an isolated clinical decision when the hospital itself says demand is affecting patient care.

“West Australians deserve to know how widespread this problem is. And the Government needs to listen to patients like Peter when they say how desperate the situation has become.”

WA Health has not published its Referrals to Public Outpatient Surgical Clinics report since December 2017.

Its website, still dated November 2018, says reporting was placed on hold while work was undertaken to improve the “quality, consistency and accuracy” of outpatient data.

Almost nine years after the last report – and after seven years of Opposition questioning in Parliament – the Cook Labor Government still cannot provide reliable statewide information showing how many patients are waiting to see a public hospital specialist or how long they can expect to wait.

In February 2026, the Government again told Parliament that accurate central reporting of outpatient waiting-time data was not available.“This is an extraordinary failure of transparency, accountability and ministerial leadership,” Ms Mettam said.

“In 2019, Labor’s own Sustainable Health Review specifically called for transparent public reporting of outpatient wait times so GPs and patients could understand how long they faced waiting for care.“Seven years later, that basic reform still has not been delivered.

“Without transparent reporting, we cannot know whether Peter’s experience is an isolated case or part of a much broader failure across the health system.“Labor has had almost a decade in government.

It has conducted reviews, promised reform and introduced new systems, yet West Australians are still being given the same excuses about the quality of its data.

“Transparency alone will not fix the capacity crisis, but keeping patients and the public in the dark allows people to be forgotten and systemic failures to remain hidden.”