Tuesday, 5 April 2022

Ministers statements: elective surgery

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:06): I am pleased to rise to update the house on the ways in which the government is supporting our health workforce: our nurses, our ambos, our doctors—the whole team—cooks, cleaners, orderlies, ward clerks—the list goes on and on. Health care, as you know, Speaker, is delivered by teams of people, and every member of our team is important, but every member of that team is very tired I think at the moment. It is fair to say that the last two years have been like no other. Despite the record levels of patients and the extreme demands that have been placed on them—everything from donning and doffing PPE, all the way through to being sick themselves; in recent days as many as 2000 of our health team in just public hospitals alone have been away from work sick or caring for someone sick—despite all of those challenges, our staff have done an amazing job. And we stand with them, not just in words but in funding, in ratios in legislation, in support—ratios in legislation, for anyone who did not hear it over there, in law for ever. So it is not just words.

On Sunday the government made a profound announcement—$1.5 billion—to support our workforce to do more surgery faster. The Frankston Private Hospital—not for much longer—is going to be leased and turned into a public elective surgery centre. And it is not just a blitz, not a once off; it is growing the total capacity of our health system from a surgery point of view up to 125 per cent, literally tens of thousands of extra surgeries each year, every year. COVID has done a lot of damage. COVID has cancelled a lot of surgery. But we will deal with COVID—

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: I am terribly sorry. COVID has cancelled a lot of surgery.

Mr R Smith interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Warrandyte is warned.

Mr ANDREWS: Goodness me! Imagine if the member for Warrandyte was running anything more than a bar. Could you imagine that?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The level of shouting in the chamber is inappropriate. Members will be removed without further warning.