Queensland Labor has pledged $154 million to further reduce specialist hospital waiting lists if returned to office at the November 25 state election.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk made the announcement from the Townsville Hospital's new children's ward on Monday, saying Labor had already significantly slashed waiting times since 2015.
"When we came into office, over 104,000 people were waiting," she said.
"What we have seen over our huge investment of over $361 million, we have been able to bring that list down to around 38,447."
It is understood two thirds of the money committed will go towards additional appointments and surgeries, giving GPs the option to refer patients to allied health services as an alternative to specialists and speeding up the referral process.
An IT platform would be created under a re-elected Labor government so patients could book appointments themselves, and an app would also be built allowing doctors to switch to electronic rather than paper and fax referrals.
Ms Palaszczuk made note of cost-cutting measures under the former Newman government, as has been a common reference throughout her campaign.
"They sacked nurses. My government invests in people," she said.
Liberal National Party shadow Health Minister John Paul Langbroek returned fire, saying category 3 elective surgery waiting times had blown out from 156 days to 211 days in the past 12 months.
"We have an ambulance ramping crisis, with a third of all patients being ramped on the back of stretchers waiting for longer than 30 minutes to get into an emergency department," he said.
"Our hospitals are suffering significant bed block, with almost half of all patients left waiting more than four hours to get out of the (emergency department) and into a hospital bed."
The premier's announcement brings the state government's health election promises to $1 billion.
She has refused to detail how Labor will pay for its commitments, saying costings will be released in the days before Queenslanders head to the polls, despite pre-polling opening on Monday.
