According to the far north Queensland health authorities the appointment of two new surgeons on the panel will help in reducing the long waiting list for elective surgery. The list of patient in the elective surgery waiting line grew up to 1,550 which meant an addition of 200 more patients at the Cairns Base Hospital’s elective surgery.

The hospital is now rated among the last five in regard to the patients admitted in specialist wards within a span of eight hours of arrival in the emergency department.

The problem of the long waiting list is also due to a shortage of beds since patients suffer from increased risk for every extra hour that they will spend in the emergency department. The waiting time for triage patients was about 39 minutes.

Surgeons will now be operating on those patients who have been waiting for their turn for an elective surgery across the district which also includes those hospitals which are on the Tablelands and in Innisfail as per Robin Moore from the Cairns and Hinterland Health Service District.