Thursday, 26 May 2022

Health system

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): My question is to the Premier. Last week Zoran from St Albans experienced severe abdominal pain. He called Nurse-on-Call, who advised he seek immediate medical advice. Zoran saw his GP that day, who sent him immediately to the Sunshine Hospital. He waited 5 hours to be seen but concerningly had to give up seeking professional help as the staff were just too overworked; he could not be seen. Rather than return to the queues, he is now surviving on a large dose of daily painkillers. He has asked that his situation be raised in the Parliament for the government to hear. What does the Premier have to say to people like Zoran who just give up on being seen in a hospital because the government has failed to act to fix the crisis in our health system?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:08): I reject any assertion from the Leader of the Opposition that the government is not doing everything it can in partnership with our nurses, our ambulance paramedics, our doctors and our allied health professionals to deal with the unprecedented pressure that is on our system at the moment, made worse of course because we have got record demand—more and more patients who need care—at a time when we have thousands of staff unable to report for work because they themselves are sick.

In terms of the individual that the Leader of the Opposition references, if the Leader of the Opposition provides to my office or to the Minister for Health’s office the details of that particular person, I will ensure that representatives of the health department and/or the health service in question, which I think would be Western Health given the reference to Sunshine Hospital, contact that person and work through all of the individual circumstances—every case is unique. If there are learnings, well, we would be grateful obviously to be able to understand that experience and work as hard as we can to improve the system in light of it. If there are other supports that we can provide to this individual, to his family and therefore to others who are in a similar circumstance, we would welcome the opportunity to do that.

I just have to make the point, though: I urge the Leader of the Opposition, please provide the details of this person. I have got—and I checked before we came to question time today—50 cases raised and less than 10 referred to my office or the health department or the Minister for Health’s office. Lest any cynic draw a conclusion that the Leader of the Opposition raises these matters not so much for the patient but for the politics, please forward those details. I give Zoran and I give the Leader of the Opposition my commitment that we will follow up to learn the learnings, if they are there, and provide the support if that is needed.

On emergency departments before I finish, I might just make one further comment: I would reject any assertion from the Leader of the Opposition. Every staff member—nurse, allied health, administrative staff member—in every emergency department every hour of every day is there doing their very, very best. They are triaging each patient. They triage each patient as they present. The sickest are treated quickest, and as the Premier, as a parent, as a partner, you want the sickest patients treated quickest. If the Leader of the Opposition has a different model for how to deliver time-critical emergency care, then let us hear it. Dr Guy can tell us all about how we should reorganise things. Please pass on the details, and we will follow up for that patient.

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:11): Emergency patients treated within clinically recommended times has fallen from 75 per cent in 2014 to 73 per cent in 2016, 71 per cent in 2018 down to 68 per cent in 2020 and this year will be under 66 per cent. Does the Premier accept any responsibility for the suffering of people like Zoran, who are part of a growing number of Victorians who cannot get the health care they need at the time they seek it?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:12): Of course I accept full responsibility for every patient and for us doing everything we can across a big and dynamic health system to provide the very best care. I accept full responsibility for that—absolutely. There is pressure in the system, and that is undeniable. What is also in the system are thousands more nurses, hundreds—perhaps more—of extra paramedics and billions of dollars in additional resources. Imagine if we had not got on and repaired the damage left to us—imagine—by choice.

On a slightly different issue, the notion that these challenges are unique to Victoria, as the Leader of the Opposition would have us all believe—I was speaking with Premier Perrottet last night, and these challenges are not unique to Victoria, nor are they unique to Australia. Cutbacks will not fix this; only investment will fix this.