ELDERLY Maribyrnong residents say they’re being left to languish due to federal and state health funding cuts.
Footscray Senior Citizens Group member Alexander Francis said some of Maribyrnong’s most vulnerable residents were living each day in unbearable pain as they waited up to six years for hip surgery.
“Old people have a life to live, too,” he said.
“But many senior citizens face a number of health problems that come with growing older, and the more funding the government cuts from the public health service the more elderly people there are living their lives in constant pain.”
Mr Francis said he knew of many elderly residents isolated in their homes as they waited for their elective surgery.
Some can’t sleep, walk or undertake day-to-day activities due to their physical pain. “What kind of a quality of life is that?” he said.
“It’s not just elderly people either, it’s children and families who live in Maribyrnong who can’t afford the cost of private health cover.
“The government just thinks that the pain is tolerable.”
Western suburbs resident Faye Baker, 74, said she waited 18 months to have her broken wrist repaired.
“I was in so much pain because the bone had broken, but it hadn’t healed properly,” she said.
“I had to keep telling the hospital I needed to get it repaired. It’s ludicrous. If you’re a public patient and it isn’t life-threatening they think you can just cope with it.”
Ms Baker said she knew of residents who had waited seven years for hip surgery.
“It doesn’t make sense that the government would take money away from the place where it’s needed the most and leave people to live years of their life sitting on an elective surgery waiting list.” Mr Francis has collected more than 100 signatures on a petition calling on the state government to follow the federal government’s lead in reversing the health funding cut.—Melissa Cunningham
