VICTORIAN Premier Denis Napthine is backing away from a key election promise to release the state's outpatient waiting list.
Before winning power in November 2010, the coalition pledged to release the list which has tens-of-thousands of people with referrals from GPs waiting to get into outpatient clinics.
Patients on the list have serious medical issues such as gallstones and potentially cancerous breast lumps.
Dr Napthine on Sunday would not affirm that the coalition would deliver on its promise.
Instead, he referred to hospital data already released. The data details the waiting time for treatment in emergency departments and elective surgery.
"We do release regular information about the performance of our hospitals and health services and we'll continue to do that," Dr Napthine said.
"It is a very comprehensive data set."
In opposition, now Health Minister David Davis attacked the then Labor government for not publishing the outpatient list.
He said tens of thousands of Victorians languished on outpatient waiting lists - some for years - before they even made the queue for surgery.
"In many cases these outpatient lists at our major public hospitals become a waiting list before the waiting list," Mr Davis said five months before the last state election.
"We need to get these lists on the record so that the community can see how long people have to wait and (so) that they can make choices about which hospital they go to, and what options they have available to them."
After becoming health minister, Mr Davis said the government had set up an independent panel of experts, headed by auditor Stuart Alford, to determine the best way to release the data.
Australian Medical Association Victorian president Stephen Parnis was assured last May the release of the outpatient list was imminent.
He said more than halfway through its term the coalition ought to have delivered on its commitment.
AAP mj/arb
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