Tuesday, 5 April 2022

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Elective surgery waiting lists

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:02): My question is to the Minister for Health. Can the minister inform the house just how many Victorians are on surgery waiting lists as of 31 March 2022?

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. Surgical waiting lists, under this government at least, are transparent, regular and available for all to see, unlike the system we inherited, which was murky—

Mr Andrews: In a man-sized safe.

Mr FOLEY: and kept in a safe on level 22, in the office that I now have the privilege of. There is still a dint in the floor—you can see it was very large, next to some empty wine bottles I found. In that regard we know that the Victorian hospitals information authority reports from some 80 public health services every quarter, and they report across a whole range of issues, not just public waiting lists.

Mr Guy: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance. It is a very straightforward question to the minister about the number of Victorians on the surgery waitlists by the end of March. I just require a very simple answer for the house from the minister. I ask you to bring him back to answering that very straightforward and simple question.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister is being relevant to the question that has been asked.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you, Speaker. These are some 80 public health services which are all independent entities that run their own show and report to this agency on a regular basis. That agency then collates all that information. Every quarter, when they have done that, they publish that information. The most recent information in that regard, for the December quarter, which was published showed in fact, sadly, that there had been an increase in the course of the global pandemic. We know that COVID has had a massive impact on our public health system—a massive impact that this party and this government are committed to dealing with in genuine partnership with our workforce, with our public health officials and indeed, as we demonstrated over the weekend, with the private sector. As soon as that data is received, as soon as that data is collated, it will be released, as it has been assiduously by this government ever since it was elected.

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:04): How many years has the government forecast that it will take to clear the surgery waitlist backlog that has built up since the Labor government was re-elected in 2018?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:05): What this government is now committed to—which this government shared with the people of Victoria on Sunday when I had the pleasure of standing with the Deputy Premier at Frankston Private Hospital to announce it—is a $1.5 billion investment that this government is bringing to address for good how we deal with a new approach to dealing with elective surgery. We know that we want to get the delivery of care in surgically recommended times to Victorians so they can have confidence in their world-class health system. We inherited a mess when it came to elective surgery. We worked hard, we invested substantial resources and we worked in partnership, and we would do it again to fix the mess. (Time expired)