Victoria's elective surgery waiting list has been cut to a four-year low.
The Victorian government says the Department of Health's preliminary figures show the number of people waiting for elective surgery has dropped by 11,000 despite a record level of activity in state hospitals.
Health Minister David Davis said 38,244 people were waiting for elective surgery as at June 30, down from more than 49,000 a year earlier.
"That is a fantastic result for Victorians, and is the lowest elective surgery waiting list since 2009/10," he said on Monday.
Mr Davis said that was despite an increase of more than 200,000 patients admitted to hospital over that 12-month period.
"More patients were admitted for elective surgery in 2013/14 than the previous year," Mr Davis said.
"In fact in terms of elective surgery we hit a record of 170,190 patients admitted for elective surgery from the waiting list throughout 2013/14."
Mr Davis said that was up from 153,000 elective surgery patients treated in 2012/13.
Hospitals admitted 46,685 patients from the waiting list in the June quarter, which was 6686 more than were treated a year earlier, he said.
"Some Victorian hospitals now have waiting lists lower than where they were in 1999," Mr Davis said.
Opposition health spokesman Gavin Jennings said the government's response to the waiting list figures was arrogant.
"There are 38,000 loved ones still waiting in pain and the Liberals are claiming mission accomplished, this sort of arrogance should insult every Victorian," Mr Jennings said.
AMA Victoria president Dr Tony Bartone said the shrinking elective surgery waiting lists was good news for patients, but more transparency was needed.
The AMA wants the government to publish quarterly outpatient waiting lists and data on the number of available beds in all Victorian public hospitals.
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