Victoria Plans Overhaul of Public Hospital Specialist Care

Victorians are waiting up to 1,460 days for routine specialist appointments in public hospitals. The state government has outlined changes in a Department of Health report that include regional waitlists and AI tools to flag urgent cases. The plan also shifts some appointments to nurses, cuts unnecessary review visits, and expands virtual care.

Officials said the measures respond to rising demand caused by higher private specialist fees and cost-of-living pressures.

Only one in five specialist appointments are for new patients. The rest are review visits, many of which are booked automatically. Officials aim to reduce these to free slots for patients with greater need. The report noted that 11 percent of appointments, or 600,000 per year, were not attended.

It also described cases such as a four-year-old who waited more than 12 months for an ear, nose and throat assessment.

Rural patients reported driving up to five hours for appointments and paying parking fees as high as $70. One mother described waiting four years for her son to see an ear, nose and throat specialist before he received care through an advanced-practice audiology clinic.

The recent state budget allocated $16 million for 45,000 additional pediatric appointments and $8 million to pilot a service allowing general practitioners to seek specialist advice without a formal referral. Officials said the changes have not been centrally coordinated for 80 years.