Secret documents show surgery blowout for Victorian hospitals Elective surgery waiting lists are expected to surge up to 50 per cent at some of Melbourne's biggest hospitals this year. THE Baillieu Government signed off on measures to add thousands of sick Victorians to soaring surgery waiting lists before federal cuts were announced, secret documents show. Confidential documents suppressed by the State Government show elective surgery waiting lists will surge up to 50 per cent at some of Melbourne's biggest hospitals this year. A hospital source told the Herald Sun the state's overall elective surgery waiting list would pass 50,000 by June 30 under funding agreements signed with Health Minister David Davis in September. The head of another hospital said the list could top 60,000 - a rise of between 12,000 and 22,000 in 12 months. The timing of the state agreements indicates severe blowouts were set to cripple Victoria's hospital system before the loss of $107 million in Commonwealth funds. Mr Davis last night rejected the scale of the waiting list increases spelled out in the government documents and maintained a lack of federal funding was responsible for the situation. The Health Minister said he received information a week before signing the agreements that Victoria would lose $39 million in federal funding, on top of a $50 million cut in elective surgery funding and GST revenue, so was more cautious in his agreements with health services than he wanted to be. "We were becoming very clearly aware of the risks to the state of a clawback of the Commonwealth, but we were not aware they would go even further and it hampered our ability to fund additional growth," Mr Davis said. The agreements will see thousands of Victorians desperate for hip replacements, heart surgery or other non-emergency operations forced to wait longer. Patients in Melbourne's south will be among the hardest hit, with a leaked Southern Health funding agreement outlining a 53 per cent elective surgery waiting list increase. The Royal Melbourne Hospital's waiting list will also rise by 41 per cent under its deal. The Herald Sun understands surgery waiting lists will jump by between 25 and 30 per cent at other major hospitals under the terms of their confidential funding agreements. The Statement of Priority 2012-13 documents outline agreements brokered between Mr Davis and the heads of some of Victoria's biggest hospitals a month before the Labor Government ripped $107 million out of the state's health budget. While the State Government fought a tough campaign to show the impact the federal cuts were having on the Victorian health system, it has maintained its own "savings" were not impacting on frontline services. Documents show Southern Health hospitals, including Monash Medical Centre, will have 10,250 patients on surgery waiting lists by June 30 - up from 6685 in its 2012-13 agreement. Mr Davis said because Southern Health failed to meet its 2011-12 targets it actually had 8622 patients on its waiting list at the start of this financial year, which, if it meets its 2012-13 target, would represent a 19 per cent over the past year. The Herald Sun can also reveal Royal Melbourne Hospital's elective surgery waiting list will jump to 3094 by June 30, up from 2195 last year. In previous years, the Coalition and Labor governments have released the "key accountability agreements" for public scrutiny in the months after they were signed, but the Baillieu Government has refused repeated requests.