Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Elective surgery

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:01): My question is to the Minister for Health. Rebecca from the City of Casey is one of many Victorians who require urgent surgery, in her case to deal with complications from a double mastectomy due to a 2021 breast cancer diagnosis. Her diagnosis includes triple-negative breast cancer and a BRCA1 gene, which is the most aggressive and dangerous of breast cancers, so every day with her daughter is precious. She needs surgery urgently, but due to the elective surgery bans May is the earliest it can be done. Her chemo has been delayed six months, her tumour has doubled in size. Why won’t the minister allow the bans on elective surgery to be fully lifted so that Rebecca and thousands like her can get the vital surgery they so desperately need?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:02): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. As honourable members will know, it is not my practice in this place—a long-held practice—to discuss particular circumstances of particular members of the Victorian community. Nonetheless, should the honourable member seek to provide me and my office with the details of this case, I will of course pursue those in confidence with him and that person.

But in regard to the broader issues that the honourable member raises in regard to the delays in non-category 1 elective surgery that are in place at the moment and were in place for the large part of January, I was pleased to see in regard to the initial lifting of those restrictions that that commenced yesterday. But in regard to the reasons why these measures need to be taken—measures that nobody in the entire state and indeed in the entire country, given that similar measures are in place right around the country, wants to see in place for a moment longer than they need to be—they are in place because at the moment our health system is under pressure like never before. No-one’s lived experience in our health system has seen the pressure and the demands of COVID-19 and particularly the omicron variant, which has seen record levels of infection and chains of transmission—no-one has seen these pressures. That has seen, at its peak, over 5000 people furloughed—close contacts or indeed immediate cases taken out of our public healthcare system. It has seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of highly infectious cases of COVID-19 in our hospitals. It has seen even higher levels of Hospital in the Home care and wider care in the care of our hospital system in the community. Putting all these together—the rationale of sadly having to prioritise the sickest people in our opportunities to deal with them in the most important locations in our hospital system—has necessitated these measures being put in place. They will not be in place for a moment longer than they are necessary.

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:05): Noting that Rebecca twice contacted the minister’s office regarding her dangerous breast cancer diagnosis, I further ask if the minister could guarantee that with new variants of COVID he will not shut elective surgery and IVF all over again.

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:06): Predicting the future in a global pandemic is a mug’s game, and indeed you can pretty much pick the mugs who do it. You can pretty much predict the mugs who one day call for the abolition of masks and for a scrapping of all the public health orders, only to pivot away from that the minute—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Members on both sides will come to order.

Mr Guy: Speaker, on a point of order, I did not ask the minister to comment on the opposition or anyone else. I asked for a ministerial guarantee that elective surgery, like in other states, will not be shut in Victoria again.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The members on my right! The Minister for Government Services is warned. I take the opportunity to warn all members that I could not hear the minister’s answer clearly enough to know whether or not the point of order was an accurate one. I ask the minister to come back to answering the question.

Mr FOLEY: I can assure the honourable Speaker that I was not reflecting on the Leader of the Opposition, but if he takes the assessment of a mug as a reflection on him, then that is up to him. In regard to the issue around what the future will bring, this government will continue to engage with the private hospitals, with our public health sector, with the workforce and with all those who need that public health system to make sure that it stays effective and relevant to their ongoing response to this global pandemic.