The Federal Government has increased the number of specialists trained quite significantly, particularly in surgical specialties. The number in my field in the greater Sydney area has doubled in about 17 years. Sound good?
No, when you look at the details, it isn't what you'd hope.
The number of positions for specialists (talking about my specialty) in public hospitals has changed by a much smaller number than that. The funding available to get work done in public hospitals has not increased at the same pace. The limiting step in delivering surgery in public hospitals is the number of sessions available in which to operate, NOT the number of surgeons available to utilise them. My public hospital has cut sessions available over the past few years, claiming they cannot staff them, so now my wait times have increased. The public system is under-funded in this regard, not under-supplied with surgeons by and large. Public hospital outpatient clinics have been decimated in the past 20 years, hence long waits to get into one. Most hospitals don't want to provide then, rather offloading that work to specialists rooms. Insurance rates are falling so more work is now being funnelled to public hospitals, which cannot keep pace.
The referring pattern of GPs is a conundrum. Many GPs are creatures of habit and just refer everyone with a certain problem to a certain specialist, regardless of the wait time, and regardless of the quality of service provided by that specialist. So some have waiting times of months, and are not necessarily any better than anyone else. True, some will "triage" appointments, making more available sooner for insured patients, and fewer for public patients. I don't endorse that practice. But the reality is that there are plenty of specialists who can see a patient quite quickly. If you're waiting months, tell your GP, search for other specialists, and get referred to someone else. It's your right.
Long waiting times do not equate to a better level of care, more to how long someone has been established in that geographical area.