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. Sarah is 32 years old, from Melbourne’s south. She is in excruciating pain and requires orthopaedic surgery to walk. Sarah has said, ‘I’m halfway through my surgeries. They need to break a bone to straighten my leg. I’m upset and starting to be depressed because I can’t move, and I can’t sleep because of the pain’. Sarah was due to have her elective surgery tomorrow, before it was cancelled earlier this week. By limiting elective surgery, why is the minister continuing to deny Sarah and thousands like her the ability to be independent, pain free and have a better quality of life?
Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:02): Can I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. No-one wants to see these measures to defer elective surgery in place for a moment longer than they need to be. No-one wants to see them in Victoria, no-one wants to see them in New South Wales, no-one wants to see them around the entire country. They are only in place as a result of the implications of what the care service is for those most critically in need of support for their COVID-19 hospitalisations—that is, those people who are the most unwell in our hospital system getting the support and care they need, be that either in the public system or the private system through the application of the national partnership agreement in this space that has been there since April 2020. It is only in that context that these measures are in place.
We have already eased those arrangements at the start of this week, as we indicated, and we have seen 50 per cent return for day and private hospital service systems in that arrangement. We have also foreshadowed that, should the reduction and stabilisation of our numbers continue, there will be more, and I get daily briefings on these matters from both private and public providers of these important services. In that regard, the measures that are in place right across the country, including here in Victoria, are critical to getting us through this global pandemic and the extraordinarily high pressures on the entire system, particularly for our public health services. In that regard the measures that are in place will not be in place for one moment longer than they are either needed or recommended, and they will continue to be eased on the directions that are currently happening. And when that easing happens we will see, as we have always seen from this side of the house, the support for our public health system, the partnership with our private health system partners, the support for the primary care arrangements, and in that regard the kind of circumstances that the honourable Leader of the Opposition points to of course will necessarily be prioritised with extra vigour, extra support and continued extra support from this Labor government.
Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:05): I thank the minister for his answer and remind him again that Sarah’s surgery was cancelled just this week. The only thing standing between her having that surgery and remaining in a life of pain is the minister making a decision to immediately resume elective surgery to full strength. With the minister refusing to do this, what does he have to say to Sarah and people like her living in constant pain?
Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:06): As I have indicated on number of occasions in recent times, these measures that are in place see the unfortunate and indeed real-world implications of many, many people having to defer elective surgery whilst all category 1 surgery and all trauma and critical surgery is of course continuing through this period. In that regard, important partnerships that we have had with the private care systems will address precisely and in an ongoing way those kinds of measures that the honourable Leader of the Opposition has pointed to in both his substantive and supplementary question. No-one wants to see the kind of circumstances that the honourable Leader of the Opposition points to in place for a moment longer than they need to be. They will not be in place for a moment longer than they need to be, and I look forward to that outcome shortly.
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! The member for South-West Coast is warned.