Health system
Ms VALLENCE (Evelyn) (14:14): My question is to the Minister for Health. Mrs Mitchell, a 62-year-old woman from Eltham who has kidney cancer, is a category 1 elective surgery patient, has lesions on her lungs and requires Endone every two hours. Surgery is not an option; it is a must. Her vital surgery has not occurred despite presenting over five weeks ago with this life-threatening condition. A number of previous health ministers over the last few years have said elective surgery delays have not caused category 1 surgeries to go past their critical 30-day period—and they clearly have. The question is: does the new minister stand by answers of previous health ministers that Victoria’s elective surgery wait times are not causing delays with category 1 patients?
Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:15): I thank the member for her question, and once again I want to express my concern for Mrs Mitchell. I know that she will receive the very best care from our Victorian healthcare workers and from our Victorian public healthcare system. To the best of my knowledge, all category 1 surgeries are being performed within their 30 days. I am very happy, if the member would provide me with details—and by that I mean name, address, hospital and treating clinician—to follow it up.
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: The member for South Barwon can leave the chamber for the period of 1 hour.
Member for South Barwon withdrew from chamber.
Ms VALLENCE (Evelyn) (14:16): Again to the Minister for Health: using the Andrews government’s own figures, in the last quarter there were four patients who waited more than 30 days for category 1 surgery. In the quarter before that there were seven. This is despite previous health ministers guaranteeing that there were none. Can the new minister guarantee that there are no Victorians from the April–May–June quarter elective surgery waitlist data, which you refuse to release publicly, who have waited or are waiting longer than 30 days for urgent category 1 surgery?
Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:17): I thank the member for Evelyn for her question. There are a number of points that I would like to make in relation to her answer. The clinical guidelines are clear that category 1 surgery should occur within 30 days. There are indeed reasons where this might not happen—if, for instance, a person is sick during that time and it puts them at greater risk by actually undertaking the surgery than by not having it. These are decisions that are made by clinicians every single day in our healthcare system.
The second point that I would like to make is that once again I extend the offer to the member for Evelyn to share the full details of this patient; I will follow up. The third point I will make is that this government releases its health performance data. We release it every quarter. We always have and we always will, unlike those on the other side who sought to hide very important healthcare data from the Victorian people— (Time expired)