Health system
Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:15): My question is to the Minister for Health. Alan, 65 years old, is under the care of the cardiology, haematology, diabetes, renal hypertension and liver clinics at the Austin Hospital. He has been on a waitlist for eight years for removal of a ganglion and now needs surgery for a shoulder injury and is progressively getting worse. He cannot use his arm to full capacity and requires regular pain relief. Alan has been trying to get an outpatient appointment and is one of tens of thousands of Victorians on the hidden waitlist—waiting for surgery but unable to get that first appointment due to extensive wait times. I ask: why has it got to this? Why are thousands of Victorians on a hidden waitlist, unable to get a first appointment so they can get the vital surgery that they so desperately need?
Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:16): Can I express my best wishes for Alan at what is obviously a difficult time—but I would make the point that there are many opportunities that members of this house have to raise issues in relation to their constituents with the government, and indeed I receive much correspondence, including from my colleagues on my side of the house and indeed on the other as well. If the Leader of the Opposition is really serious and really concerned about Alan, if he wants to put patients before politics, then he would be well advised to write to me and give me the details so that I can follow up his situation. But once again I make the point that while our government has a plan to address the planned surgery waitlist, those on the other side have already come out deriding our plan. They do not believe in expanding public surgery, public hospitals and public access. It was all made clear by Ms Crozier in the other place when she somewhat hysterically suggested that this was socialism in action. All we are focused on, if you do not mind, Speaker, is delivering the very best health care for all Victorians.
Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): I thank the minister for her response. When people like Alan do eventually manage to get a first appointment for an operation, they will then join the nearly 90 000 others waiting for vital surgery. How many more Alans are there in Victoria? How many more Victorians are waiting for vital surgery but cannot even get the first appointment to get them to the elective surgery waiting list, leaving them anxious and in pain?
Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:18): I will make the point of course that every day our hardworking clinicians and nurses are making decisions about the planned surgery waitlist, and they are doing that based on patient acuity. These are clinical decisions made every day by clinicians. I would also make the point that we have a plan to deliver even more planned surgeries, but those on the other side just do not want to listen. They do not want to hear about all the work that we are doing to support our healthcare workers deliver the care that patients need and deserve. And frankly our healthcare system is made up of people—nurses, doctors, ambos, clerks, cleaners, cooks, allied healthcare professionals—who have gone above and beyond throughout the pandemic and yet get no recognition, and only get talked down by those on the other side.