Health ministers from the ruling party and the main opposition agreed a cross-party review of waiting lists at three city hospitals. Orthopaedic appointments at those sites have slipped past four months, even for patients already cleared for surgery.
The review will not reopen the budget. It will ask why theatres sit idle on two afternoons a week while lists grow. Hospital directors say the constraint is anaesthesia cover and sterile-supply staff, not the number of surgeons on the payroll.
What happens next
Patient groups asked to sit in as observers. The health secretary said they may submit written cases but will not join the closed sessions, because individual files will be on the table. A public summary is promised within forty-five days.
Neither side claimed the agreement as a political win. A joint note said the lists are long enough that a partisan argument would waste the weeks before the winter rush of fractures and chest infections.
Taj Today will update this report if the official numbers or the timetable change. Related coverage stays on the Politics page.
