Patients in Kogarah and across the state will benefit from reduced surgery wait times following Labor's $30 million investment in short stay surgery.

This investment will help patients access the surgical care they need, quicker.

This will support us as we continue to reduce the Liberal's backlog of overdue surgeries, from over 18,000 in June 2022 to 2,534 in June 2025.

This crucial $30 million funding injection will implement new models of care to increase short stay surgical capacity.

The changes are expected to have long-term outcomes on surgical services, with the potential for successful innovations to be adopted across other hospitals.

This will improve access to surgery, reduce wait times, save on costs and enhance patient experience and integration between primary, community and specialist care.

High volume short stay surgeries are planned surgeries or procedures which require patients to be admitted for up to 72 hours.

These surgeries generally include ear nose and throat surgery, general surgery and orthopaedics, accounting for more than 80 per cent of all surgery undertaken in NSW public hospitals.

This additional investment builds on the $23 million already delivered as part of our most recent budget and the $186 million provided at the end of 2024 to reduce the number of patients waiting longer than clinically recommended for their planned surgery.

NSW Health is a national leader in this space, with work already underway to increase access to same-day surgery, reduce the elective surgery waiting list and improve patient outcomes.

We are investing in more staff, more hospitals and more beds and we are seeing results of lower wait times and less ramping.

 I want to thank every staff member for their work in delivering these significant improvements.

While we've managed to reduce the Liberal's overdue surgery backlog, I know there is still more to do.

We will keep getting on with the job of building a better healthcare system for all of us.