Tuesday, 3 May 2022

Health services

Ms KEALY (Lowan) (12:36): My question is to the Minister for Health. Nine days ago Cecelia had a fall and broke both of her arms. She presented to Grampians Health in Horsham immediately and was told she would have to go to Ballarat for an urgent appointment to have the fractures reset and urgent surgery. Nine days later Cecelia still has not had her urgent appointment and surgery with Grampians Health. Cecelia cannot feel her left hand, she cannot work, she cannot feed herself, she cannot drive and has difficulty doing the basics like just going to the toilet. What does the minister have to say to Cecelia, who continues to suffer because of the dire situation of Victoria’s health system?

The SPEAKER: Order! I rule the question in order, but I just remind members that questions need to be specific, relating to government business. I will allow the minister to answer this question, but it is just a reminder to those people asking questions.

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (12:37): Can I thank the member for Lowan for her question. I am not familiar with the particulars of her constituent’s engagement with Grampians Health, but I do know that I would need to take what the honourable member asserts with a degree of caution because this member has a bit of form when it comes to misrepresenting the position of her community, particularly when it comes to Grampians Health. This is the same member that asserted that maternity services had stopped. That comes as a shock to the 20 women who have given birth—

Ms Kealy: On a point of order, Speaker, I note the Premier’s interjection that ‘It’s all about politics’.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Without the assistance of any members.

Ms Kealy: This question went specifically to Cecelia, who has two broken arms. She cannot eat, she cannot take herself to the toilet, she cannot drive and she cannot work. She also cannot get support in Victoria’s public health system. I ask you to bring the minister back to Cecelia’s situation on why she cannot access support in Victoria’s public health system.

The SPEAKER: Order! I have already warned members that they could be removed from the chamber without further warning. I do not uphold the point of order that the member has raised. The question that the member asked is, ‘What does the minister have to say in relation to the specific example that was mentioned?’, so it is a broad question. But I do ask the minister not to attack the opposition or other honourable members in giving his answer.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you, Speaker, and I will take your guidance as given. The point I was simply trying to make is that you need to be careful with what you say in this business. You need to be careful with your public comments that are designed to instil fear and concern in your own community.

Ms Kealy: Speaker, on a point of order, the minister continues to attack the opposition. They continue to ignore the needs of Cecelia. I ask you to again attempt to bring the minister back to addressing this question around why people cannot get two broken arms fixed—

The SPEAKER: Order! The member knows this is not a way to make a point of order. The minister is being relevant to the question.

Mr FOLEY: You can make a choice about playing cheap politics based on lies or you can make a decision based on—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Honourable members on my right!

Ms Kealy: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister is using unparliamentary language to say that a Wimmera Health executive that called out the huge problems with Victoria’s health system—

The SPEAKER: Order! I uphold the point of order that the member has raised. I asked the minister not to use unparliamentary terms.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you, Speaker. I will certainly make sure that I stick to appropriate parliamentary requirements.

You can make a choice when it comes to responding to the biggest global health crisis in a century. You can work with your workforce, with your health agencies and with your emergency services and respond to the biggest challenges that this workforce has seen in their professional experience. You can invest in them, in their infrastructure and in their systems and deal in a cooperative arrangement with the biggest health challenge we have ever seen, and you can base your recovery coming out of that on a health-led recovery by investing in record amounts in those people.

Or you can choose the alternative route that we are seeing the federal government currently pursue. You can deny people in aged care the support they need to get access to decent services in their community and in their aged care facilities. You can choose to ignore thousands of people stuck in hospitals when they should be at home being supported by the NDIS, you can—further from the commonwealth government—pretend that the pandemic is over and cut $1.5 billion from Victoria’s health system, or you can choose to invest record amounts and work cooperatively with our professionals in our public health system and drive a health-led recovery. You can put patients first or you can wage war on the community. We choose the former.

Ms KEALY (Lowan) (12:43): After presenting to the Horsham emergency department Cecelia was told that a referral had been made and that Grampians Health Ballarat would contact her regarding her urgent appointment. This call never came. In fact Cecelia had to call Grampians Health 11 times over the following week until she received confirmation the referral had finally been received and the urgent appointment was scheduled. How can you be putting patients first when a woman who has sustained two broken arms requiring urgent medical attention and possible surgery is left waiting nine days for an urgent appointment to be secured?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (12:44): Can I thank the member for Lowan for her supplementary question. I am more than happy, should the honourable member seek to provide me with the details of her constituent’s concerns, to follow that up with Grampians Health, but I would need to fact-check it and I would need to make sure that the no doubt legitimate issues about responding to record demand are investigated. What we do know is that, sadly, over the course of the global pandemic what should be a bipartisan, national, unifying issue of supporting our healthcare system has become the subject of cheap politics, and some choose to misrepresent the position of great organisations like Grampians Health in Horsham. They choose to present the fact that apparently maternal and child health supports have been shut in that service, which is a bit of a shock to, like I said— (Time expired)