Wednesday, 11 May 2022

Torquay community hospital

Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (19:08): (6350) My adjournment this evening is for the Minister for Health. What I am looking for the Minister for Health to provide the good people of Polwarth—or the new residents of Polwarth, actually—is an update on the fourth time promised community hospital in Torquay. We had a debate earlier today about where some of these health promises have gone. But the government are adamant that they are going ahead with the Torquay community hospital, and that is a good thing. That will be much looked forward to by the people of Torquay. However, in doing the research for the matter of public importance today it became abundantly clear that the government has sent out a lot of mixed messages on what it is going to do, and I think the people of Torquay would really appreciate knowing when it is going to be delivered, because it has now been promised since 2018 in every budget.

The budget amount has not altered at all. It is now five or six years after it was originally budgeted for, and we would like to know what services it is going to deliver. The Premier at one point indicated it might have overnight beds. The Victorian Health Building Authority made it clear that it was not going to include overnight beds. The Premier at one point indicated that it may well deliver after-hours urgent care, such as a child breaking an arm or someone having a severe reaction to something. And then, again, the details of what the government is delivering on community health have made it clear that urgent and life-threatening cases in fact need to have the person continue on to Geelong as they have done now for eternity.

So, Minister, what I am looking for is a clear recipe, if you like, for what the people of Torquay will get with their community hospital. What hours of operation will it have, and what is the breadth of services? That is something that I am sure, Minister, you will know about because you have now put tenders out. Minister, as you would be aware, when tenders are let you obviously have to have designed the service structure that you are going to have—so the scope of service that the new building will be designed for. Really the community will want to know whether that Surf Coast community, that Great Ocean Road area with the literally tens of thousands of visitors, will in fact have the capacity and the ability to have a 24-hour urgent care component, which is really what has been sold to the community. I think it is important to be up-front, considering that in the five years that the government has proposed this hospital the budget has not moved. I am hoping that those extra services have not been cut from the package offering to the Torquay community for a community hospital.