Tuesday, 8 February 2022

COVID-19

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:09): My question is to the Minister for Health. How many private hospital beds commandeered for COVID use and which were the result of elective surgery bans were actually used for COVID care?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:10): Can I thank the honourable leader for his question. If I can just set him straight on some of the language that he uses. These beds are not commandeered. There is a national partnership agreement in place right across the commonwealth that we all value and which every state and the commonwealth have used. It is because we are in the middle of the greatest public health crisis that we have seen in living memory—right across the world, let alone here in Australia. A key part of that approach is to make sure that we have in place a whole-of-system capacity to respond to a public health crisis—a proposition that was put to the states by the honourable Prime Minister as to how states could align their public health demands with the capacity in the private sector—and it has been invaluable. So I reject the notion that this is somehow a notion of commandeering the private health system. It is a genuine partnership, one that both the state and the commonwealth have put substantial resources into, and which the private sector operators have overwhelmingly supported and welcomed.

In regard to the specifics that the honourable member talks about, it is not a notion of beds, it is a notion of people, capacity and resources. In that regard I am pleased to say that since the start of this arrangement way back in April 2020, 43 354 Victorian public patients have been supported in the private sector through that arrangement, and I want to thank both the private and the public sectors for operating in such a close partnership.

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:12): Will the minister commit to investigating or auditing the health consequences of cancelled surgery to Victorians, whose health is suffering as a result of the government cancelling elective surgery for lengthy periods of time?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:12): I thank the honourable Leader of the Opposition for his question. I refer the honourable Leader of the Opposition to the publicly available national partnership agreement, which has built into it an auditing facility that goes to all sorts of issues around quality, cost and numbers. It is publicly available. I would refer the honourable leader to it.

Mr Guy: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, this is not relevant to the question that was asked. The question that was asked was in direct relation to Victoria cancelling elective surgery, and I have asked the minister: will he hold an audit into the consequences of that in Victoria alone? I ask you to bring the minister back to answering a specific question about cancelling elective surgery in Victoria.

The SPEAKER: Order! On the point of order, the minister is being relevant to the question. The minister has concluded his answer.