Questions without notice and ministers statements
Ambulance services
Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:01): My question is to the Premier. Bernard and Corine Anseline of Pakenham’s 14-year-old daughter, Lydia, died only weeks ago from an asthma attack after waiting 34 minutes for an ambulance. Sadly, 15 other Victorians have died in recent months waiting for ambulances. As the Premier of the state, how does the government let our health system deteriorate to a crisis level like that of Corine and Bernard’s daughter in Pakenham?
Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:02): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The death of any Victorian while waiting for health care, the death of any Victorian as a result of this pandemic or in any other circumstance is a tragedy and one that diminishes all of us. I do not accept the contention that the Leader of the Opposition has put forward about ‘letting’, as if this was an outcome that the government sought, as if this was an outcome that, say, ambulance paramedics or nurses or doctors or other members of the health team sought and wanted and simply allowed to happen. In my experience everyone who works in our health system, whether it be people who take calls and then dispatch them at 000, people who work on the wards, people who are administrators or people who work in the kitchens and the car parks, right across our entire system they are all committed to providing the very best care in as timely a way as they possibly can.
There are some opposite who refuse to acknowledge that there is enormous pressure in our health system as the result of a one-in-100-year event. When I talk to nurses, when I talk to doctors and ambos, they are very clear about the pressure they are under and they are equally clear that we need to support them even more strongly than we have. That is why last week in the budget that the Treasurer delivered there is a pandemic repair plan: $1.5 billion for elective surgery catch-up—not a one-off but reforming that system and growing its capacity out to about 240 000 procedures per year—and 7000 additional staff, 5000 of which are nurses. Those investments are in stark contrast to others who, when given the chance—each and every time they have been given the chance—cut. They cut and they cut again. That does no-one any good at all.
Of course our thoughts and our prayers are with any family who has lost a loved one, but our action is to support, in record and unprecedented terms, the very health professionals that some seek to malign, the very health professionals who are working every hour of every shift in every part of our state to save lives. They are worthy of our respect and they are worthy of our support, and that is exactly what they get from the government I am proud to lead.
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! If there is any further shouting, members can expect to leave the chamber without further warning.
Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:05): Fourteen-year-old Lydia’s last words to her dad were ‘Dad, I love you’. This family is obviously deeply traumatised. They live just 4 minutes from an ambulance station. Her grieving father has said publicly, ‘I wish I’d just driven her to the hospital. If I knew an ambulance wasn’t going to come—why didn’t they just tell me?’. Premier, do you finally take responsibility for the failings in our health system that have ultimately cost this girl and, sadly, a dozen others their lives?
Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:05): As I said, the death of any Victorian is a tragedy, one that is felt by all of us but is most acutely felt by those who loved that person the most. Not just as the Premier but as a parent, not only I but I think all of us who are parents, perhaps all of us now as we hear this question asked and as we see reports in the newspaper, we are all thinking about what that would mean in our own family and in our own circumstances. Of course you cannot help but think that. My answer to the Leader of the Opposition is that I am responsible, as every member of the government is, to make sure that we support our health professionals to do the very best that they can. Now, part of that is waiting and letting processes, whether they be coronial or sentinel events processes—
Members interjecting.
Mr ANDREWS: You can interject all you want, but coronial processes are important because that culture of always learning from every incident is deeply at the centre of our health system.