A SURGEON at Western Health has expressed dismay at allegations of secret hospital waiting lists, calling the "unwarranted attacks extremely distressing, demeaning and totally demoralising".

As reported by the Advertiser last month, Opposition health spokesman David Davis claimed documents obtained under FoI showed thousands of people waiting up to four years for surgery at Footscray, Sunshine and Williamstown hospitals.

The claim was made during the Altona byelection campaign.

Also as reported, Western Health and the State Government accused the Liberals of "misinterpreting" the figures, They demanded an apology.

Western Health surgical services director Trevor Jones has joined the chorus seeking an apology from the Opposition.

"Western Health does not and has never had 'thousands ... on secret waiting lists'," he said. "Western Health has removed thousands of people from our waiting list; my surgical colleagues operated on close to 14,000 people in the last year. This is about 1000 more operations on people from the waiting list than in the previous year.

"As well, we operated on many other people admitted though our three emergency departments who required emergency surgery.

"We find the unwarranted attacks on ourselves, Western Health and indeed our community to be extremely distressing, demeaning and totally demoralising." State Health Minister Daniel Andrews said the Liberals had "deliberately pretended" that up to 2900 patients who underwent surgery were still waiting.

"The Opposition asked for a list of patients who had come off the elective surgery waiting list because they had had their surgery and then tried to pass it off as a secret waiting list," he said.

"Associate Professor Jones and his colleagues take pride in the care they provide to patients in the west, and to suggest they are somehow keeping patients locked away on a 'hidden waiting list' is beyond the pale".

However, an apology from the Liberals will not be forthcoming. Mr Davis accused Labor of resorting to "thuggish" tactics. "In an act of desperation, the health minister has now made a series of fabricated statements about the Opposition, all of which have been proven to be wrong.