‘Waiting in pain’: Libs slam children hospital wait times as thousands of midwives strike
As midwives and nurses descend on parliament house for the second time in six months over pay claims, the Liberal party condemns children’s elective surgery wait times.
Almost 7000 South Australians are overdue for elective surgeries, 160 of them at the Women’s and Children’s, SA Health data the Opposition says is seeing South Australians left in “debilitating pain” for too long.
Of the 160 children who are still waiting for surgery at the Women’s and Children’s, most are waiting for orthopaedic surgery (68), followed by general surgeries (39) and then plastic surgeries (31), according to SA Health’s elective surgery dashboard.
Liberal health spokesperson Heidi Girolamo was concerned the data showed 60 more children have scheduled surgeries for a date beyond the recommended timeframe with these categorised as “not timely” while 34 gynaecology surgeries, typically done on women over 18, were scheduled but not timely.
Girolamo said it was “crucial” for children’s development that they received timely surgeries.
“That we have over 200 children waiting longer than they should for surgery is a damning indictment on a broken system,” she said.
Girolamo claimed there had been a 60 per cent jump in the number of people overdue for surgery in the four years of the current Labor government.
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“I shudder to think how bad it will get if they have four more,” she said.
SA liberal leader Ashton Hurn said the total 25,400 people SA Health had recorded as waiting for surgery across all hospitals were often “in debilitating pain”, and this added to the strain on the system.
“Far too many South Australians are stuck in pain and uncertainty waiting for the surgery they desperately need to fundamentally improve their lives,” Hurn said.
Following the claims, Health Minister Chris Picton said in a statement that in 2025 South Australian hospitals performed a record 63,068 elective surgeries under the current Labor government – the highest ever performed in a year.
“That’s 3106 more surgeries than in 2024 and 3224 more surgeries than in any year under the previous Liberal government,” Picton said.
“We are also creating more capacity in our system – building more than 600 extra beds and we’ve already hired more than 2700 extra health workers above attrition, including hundreds of doctors and nurses.”
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Complaints about the long waits come as thousands of midwives and nurses stop work around the state today to protest on the steps of Parliament at 1pm after rejecting an eleventh-hour pay offer.
The government presented the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation (ANMF) a new offer on Wednesday afternoon, which would boost pay by 11.14 per cent over three years.
It was the fourth offer made to the union in months-long negotiations, but the union rejected the offer, saying it was “not respectful”.
When asked about what impact today’s action would have on elective surgeries, ANMF CEO and secretary Elizabeth Dabars said the union “worked closely with all of the hospitals and health services to make sure that adequate cover is being made during that period”.
“This is not what nurses and midwives want to do,” Dabars said.
“Nurses and midwives want to be at the bedside providing the best quality care possible, and the reality is they can’t do it now, and if we fail to continue to respect and value nurses and midwives, that will only worsen in the foreseeable future.”
On Wednesday, when Premier Peter Malinauskas announced the latest offer, he said it was in line with pay deals agreed to in other states, like Queensland and New South Wales, along with other public sector workers in SA.
“I suspect the rally will go ahead, and they’re entitled to that, but what I would say is this enterprise agreement is in line with what we’ve agreed and has been approved for firefighters…public sector workers, health workers, doctors, allied health professionals,” Malinauskas said.
When asked about the pay deal, Liberal leader Ashton Hurn said, “I hope its sorted out sooner rather than later”.
“They do need a pay rise, they work around the clock and provide excellent service but they are working under incredible conditions and I think the government do need to acknowledge that with a pay rise.”
Hurn has proposed a nurse and midwife recruitment scholarship program and retention bonuses as part of the Liberal health policy announced for the state election.
When the nurses union rallied on Parliament House steps in October, they had almost four thousand attendees leading to part of North Terrace being closed to traffic.
