Thursday, 9 June 2022

Health system

Ms VALLENCE (Evelyn) (14:19): My question is for the Premier. Deborah from Lilydale has been waiting for a hysterectomy since April 2021. Her operation in July 2021 was cancelled. Over the 13 months that Deborah has been waiting for this vital surgery she has had to attend the Angliss Hospital on 30 occasions for severe bleeding. On one occasion Deborah passed out in an ambulance. When she arrived at emergency there were no beds available, and she was forced to remain in the waiting room on towels for 7 hours. Deborah works in the homelessness and youth sector but is unable to work because of the unexpected and severe bleeding she continuously suffers. Given Deborah has waited 13 months, is personally writing to the Premier or having her matter raised here in Parliament the only way for Deborah to get the vital surgery that she needs?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:20): I thank the member for her question, and the answer to her question is no, not at all. If we only provided surgery to those that those opposite provided us details on, then we would not be doing very much surgery at all, would we?

Mr Guy interjected.

Mr ANDREWS: Well, for about 20 per cent of the cases you have raised, you have provided to us to get care for those patients. That is on the Leader of the Opposition; that is not on us. That is on the Leader of the Opposition—give us the details, and we will follow it up.

Ms Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, on 100 per cent of the cases that I have raised the Premier has received the information, so he should please stop misleading the house.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my right! The member for Evelyn is not raising a point of order.

Mr ANDREWS: They are the facts: of 50-odd cases raised, for around 10 we have had details. On the specific case that the member for Evelyn raises, I have answered the question about what is required for that individual to get her care. It is not about writing letters to me, it is about budgets approved by this Parliament, put forward by this government, which will see this constituent and others get the care they need. That is the second point I will make. Thirdly—

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: Well, there is lots of noise. You know, they never said much when they cut the budget. They cannot even provide the details of the people they are pretending to champion. Provide the details for all of them, and we will follow all of them up—all of them. If you are about the patient, then do that—be about the patient rather than the politics. But something we found out this week is it is all about the politics and not about the patients.

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: On the specific individual—we cannot get a word in. On the specific individual raised, let me—

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Gippsland South can leave the chamber for the period of 1 hour.

Member for Gippsland South withdrew from chamber.

Mr ANDREWS: On the issue and the specific case that is raised by the honourable member, let me firstly say I am more than happy to follow up and provide any further information, to double-check that all relevant support is being provided for this particular constituent. But if there is anything we can do to get her care and support and treatment faster than would otherwise be the case, we are more than happy to do that. While I am on my feet and speaking specifically about this person, can I also thank her for her service. As the member indicates, she is Deborah—

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: Really, the best you can do is play those sorts of games? While others are playing games, let me thank her for her service and her work in the homelessness and youth sector. Let me assure Deborah that the government is providing adequate funding to health services to catch up on surgeries that have been delayed unavoidably by this pandemic and that if her surname—beyond Deborah, her first name—is provided to me, then I will make sure that Angliss Hospital and Eastern Health are doing everything they can to support her in her clinical journey, that she is appropriately classified and that she is getting everything she needs as fast as we can possibly provide it to her.

Ms VALLENCE (Evelyn) (14:23): Tens of thousands of Victorians like Deborah are being forced to wait lengthy times for critical, life-changing surgery. Given the elective surgery waiting list gets longer every quarter, how can any Victorian have any confidence that the Premier will fix this crisis for people like Deborah?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (14:24): The answer to the question, as my colleagues point out, is that we do not cut health funding. We do not have a secret plan exposed—it was not secret for long—to dismantle nurse-to-patient ratios. We do not close hospitals. We do not sit by and cheer on our mates in Canberra as they cut health funding. We also do not say ‘Let it rip, let everyone get COVID. Who cares about protecting our health system?’. If you think there are challenges now, just imagine if (a) we had not pretty well repaired the damage done by the government we took over from or (b) we listened to these public health geniuses.

Ms Staley: On a point of order, Speaker, the Premier is debating the question, and I ask you to bring him back to it. I did not raise a relevance point, I raised that he was debating the question, and I ask you to bring him back to answering it.

Mr ANDREWS: On the point of order, Speaker, the question asked me: how could the community have confidence? I am detailing why the community can have confidence absolutely, and if those opposite, who I have not really referred to, identify with all the things I am listing, then that says a fair bit about them and their record in government.

The SPEAKER: Order! I do not uphold the point of order.

Mr ANDREWS: We will not be cutting health budgets, we will not be closing hospitals and we will not be privatising hospitals either, just quietly. In fact the Frankston Private Hospital is essentially becoming a public hospital under these arrangements. If the member is upset with the answer—you wrote the question. In short, we will not be doing what you got up to when you were in office.