The state government has pledged an additional $49.5 million to reduce Queensland’s elective surgery waitlist by offloading public-sector patients through private hospitals.
Speaking from Prince Charles Hospital, in Brisbane’s north, Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the surgery waitlist had dropped about 7 per cent in the past year, and promised the funding would help treat another 5600 patients.
“This is life-changing surgeries for people,” he said.
“It means that they can walk their dog, they can take their kids to sporting events, they can get back to the gym, they can get back to enjoying their life.”
Nicholls said about 60 per cent of the funds would go towards Brisbane metro hospitals, while the remainder would help Queensland’s regions.
The targeted funding – which builds on $100 million delivered in 2025 – will go in-part support the state’s Surgery Connect program, which provides state-funded subsidies on elective surgery at private hospitals.
In 2024, the former state government also funded the program by $100 million.
Nicholls said since July 2025, just over 13,100 patients were treated through the program, boosting the number of people treated from that same period the previous year by 131 per cent.
He said of the several thousand surgeries expected to be delivered in 2026, 75 per cent of them would be through the Surgery Connect program.
A chunk of the $49.5 million investment, Nicholls said, was also earmarked for “working our own hospital theatres faster and putting more people through”.
“Here at the Prince Charles Hospital, [there is] an investment of almost $8 million in the Metro North Hospital health service region,” he said.
“That can deliver over 800 more collective surgeries in this region.
Labor accused the government of favouring the elective surgery waitlist at the expense of those waiting for specialist outpatient surgery.
Opposition health spokesman Mark Bailey said the number of people waiting for outpatient specialist surgery had grown by 13 per cent – or about 40,000 additional people – since the government assumed power at the end of 2024.
“They need to knuckle down and deal with the outpatient situation,” Bailey said.
He conceded the government had improved the number of patients on elective surgery waitlists and welcomed the new investment, but called on the state to boost funding across the board.
Nicholls said the claims of neglecting other waitlists were “completely and utterly laughable”, and said the former government had let the number of people awaiting elective surgeries balloon during their time in power.
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