Ovens Valley electorate
Mr McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (14:43): (6398) My question is to the Minister for Health, and I ask it on behalf of Olive Lurk of Wangaratta. Last week on the day after her 80th birthday she started to feel unwell and was quite concerned about her health. She called Nurse-on-Call, and they suggested that she get to the doctors fairly soon. It was all booked out, of course, and she did not trust waiting for an ambulance, so she drove herself to hospital when she felt well enough to do so. She ended up waiting in the emergency centre for 2 hours, so she decided to just go home and hope that she got better. As she was leaving a nurse approached her and stopped her from leaving, which was lucky, because she was diagnosed as having had a ministroke. ‘The nurses were amazing, but they needed more resources and staff’, said Mrs Lurk. I ask the Minister for Health: will he commit to more resources and support for the Northeast Health Wangaratta hospital to ensure people like Mrs Lurk are treated in a timely fashion? This scenario could have got out of hand very quickly, and we urge the minister to take our concerns seriously.