Minister's office defends health advertising splurge Surgery guarantee a 'flawed policy' The LNP gives "Australia's first elective surgery wait time guarantee" but unions say the policy will see millions of dollars "ripped out" of the health system. PT1M21S http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-3kzq3 620 349 November 24, 2014 - 8:16AM Prominent television advertising promoting Health Minister Lawrence Springborg's Sunday announcement of a hospital waiting list guarantee is not promoting the government before next year's state election, Mr Springborg's office said. However Labor questions the spirit of the health advertisements, which went to air just hours after the new policy was announced. The Queensland Governments' Code of Conduct for government Advertising says "there should be no advertising within six months of the scheduled date for an election unless there is an urgent emerging issue." Health Minister Lawrence Springborg has defended government advertising spending. The 2015 Queensland election has not yet been called, but is likely to be called in mid-to-late March 2015. Queensland Government advertising statistics show the government spent more than $36 million on advertising - $36,831,579 - in 2013-14. The department of Treasury and Trade was the Queensland Government's biggest advertiser - $13,470,337 - more than a third of the total government advertising bill. Health is the second biggest advertiser, spending $9,088,918. Of this, more than $8.7 million is allocated to "health campaigns', while $353,975 is spent on general advertising. The new "Wait Time Guarantee" advertisements would be paid for health department funding for the 2014-15 year. Shadow health spokeswoman Jo Ann Miller said it was clear the advertising was not "within the spirit of government advertising." "It is quite clear that they have broken the standard and that it is certainly not within the spirit of what the people of Queensland should expect from the government," she said. People know that the election is due in March next year and they would rather that this money be spent on front-line services, rather than on promoting the LNP. Ms Miller said the advertising should be spent by the LNP's party organisation. It should not be taxpayer's money used to promote the LNP itself. This was rejected by a spokesman for Health Minister Lawrence Springborg who said the advertising highlighted a major change in health policy and was not "election" advertising. "There is no election," the spokesman said. "We have got to tell people how it works - and what we have done is gradually reducing our waiting list times - and now is the time where we can tell people that we can do a 'Wait Time Guarantee'," he said. Because we are getting it (waiting times) to zero and what we want is those (hospital boards) to hold it at zero. People's rights have changed under the Queensland health system, the minister's spokesman said. "You will be seen within your set times," he said. "Once you have seen the specialist - and you have been put on the waiting list - you will be seen in 30 days if your case is urgent, or 90 days if you are semi-urgent," he said. Now that has changed dramatically and we need to tell people. The spokesman said the state government was spending less on advertising that the previous Labor government. However Labor's advertising spend in 2011-12 - its last full year in office - was $30,287,825, more than $6 million below the LNP state government spend in 2013-14. That figure can be calculated here. The minister's spokesman said the health advertising was separate to the Queensland Government's "Strong Choices" advertising campaign. He said the new "Wait Time Guarantee" advertising was part of a series of health promotional advertisements that had been prepared, linked to explaining problems in Queensland Health. "We are in the process of making a series of ads about GP's not EDs," he said. To tell people that if you have a sniffle you don't go to the ED, you go to the GP. And we tell them that because at the moment we have a problem there. He said 30 per cent of people going to emergency departments should go the GP, Queensland Health's research shows. He said similar advertising has been run in Western Australia. The spokesman said the new "Wait Time Guarantee" advertising was funded by Queensland Health. People have never had access to that, so we want to explain what the hell it is. The spokesman said it had nothing to do with next year's election. "The fact is that we have made this announcement and we can't not tell people about it," he said. That would be inviting a bloody mess. And one thing we are trying to avoid in Queensland Health is bloody messes.