Thursday, 7 April 2022

Ministers statements: rural and regional telehealth services

Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Leader of the House, Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop) (14:26): I rise today, representing the Minister for Regional Development in the chamber, to provide an update on this government’s commitment to telehealth services in regional and rural Victoria. The Andrews Labor government invests in education, health and transport services for regional communities, and that is why it is making the necessary investments in telehealth that regional communities need right now. We are doing this to sustain the high rates of telehealth we have seen experienced by communities as a consequence of the pandemic. For example, we are providing early telehealth access to connect those in the Wimmera Southern Mallee to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and providing the Wathaurong community in the Geelong region with funding to provide telehealth sessions for Aboriginal kids. We understand clearly the benefit of providing these telehealth services, and indeed we have expanded these telehealth services through investments that we have made through this COVID period as well as delivering mental health telehealth services for nurses, midwives and students of nursing and midwifery, for those who need them the most. We will be supporting patients and healthcare professionals to make these investments we need because we understand that the healthcare system in regional communities needs investments, not cuts.

Let me tell you about a very different approach being taken by the federal Liberal-National government. Consider this: they have removed more than 100 telehealth items from the Medicare benefits schedule; they have cut the loading provided for telehealth psychiatric services that were a lifeline for those in regional Victoria; telehealth psychiatric consultations that last for more than 45 minutes have been scrapped but—can you believe this—they have also made heavy cuts to telehealth appointments used by cancer patients in regional Victoria. This is what happens when you cut health care, and this is what leads to deterioration of regional and rural health services. And it is being cheered on every step of the way by those opposite, who are showing they are Liberals first, Victorians second.