WAITING lists for elective surgery at Maroondah Hospital have almost doubled in the past year.
The latest state government figures show that on December 31 last year, 1156 patients were waiting to have an elective procedure at the hospital — compared with 641 patients at the same date in 2011.
And while the state and federal governments continue to blame each other for the blowout, locals are losing out.
Health Minister David Davis said while the federal government had backflipped on its plan to cut $107 million to Victorian hospital funding, the planned cut had still affected hospitals like Maroondah.
"This savage cut was belatedly promised to be restored in February after extreme pressure on the federal government, but our hospitals have already scaled back their activity," Mr Davis said. "It will take the hospitals some time to gear up again, and those cuts will show up in future quarterly reports."
Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek had earlier said Victorians were living in a "state of secrecy" and that earlier cuts by the state government were also to blame.