The Victorian Government has announced $190 million in funding to cut elective surgery waiting times.

Health Minister David Davis says the funds will be distributed over the next four years, with the first allocation of $45 million to be included in Tuesday’s budget.

He says the funding will allow an extra 10,000 people to be treated.

“Waiting lists are always a challenge for governments. A growth in the number of people and an ageing population means there’s always a significant challenge,” he said.

“But our hospitals, our doctors and our nurses by and large do an extremely good job in managing that task, and the Government is giving them more resources to do that.”

The Opposition’s health spokesman, Gavin Jennings, says the Government is just playing catch-up after the elective surgery waiting lists blew out under the Coalition.

“The sorry news for … patients is the amount of money put in by the Victorian Government today will not turn around waiting lists that have grown successively under this government,” he said.

“When they came to office, there were 38,000 people on the waiting list. Now there are more than 48,000.”