Wednesday, 17 August 2022

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Health system

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:01): My question is to the Minister for Health. Seventy-nine-year-old Maurie Killeen from Stratford has been waiting three years for a knee reconstruction. Maurie contacted us in the last few days, saying that some mornings he can barely walk due to the pain, and he has asked, ‘Will it be my turn anytime soon to get an operation?’. Why are Victorians continuing to wait in pain because this government has let surgery waiting lists blow out to almost 90 000 people?

Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:02): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. As always, if he wants to provide the details of the person whose circumstances he has raised today in the house, I am very happy to get the department to follow up and to see if there is any further advice or care that can be offered to him—I think his name was Maurie—at this time. But again I need to make the point—I have made it many times, but I will keep on making it—that our health system has been under unprecedented pressure, and this is as a consequence of the global pandemic.

This is being experienced right around the nation and indeed around the world, but let me tell you this: our government has a plan. We have a $12 billion COVID repair plan, and let me add also that in the data that was released transparently by our government, as it is every quarter, what we saw is some stabilisation in the system, and indeed we saw almost a doubling in the number of planned surgeries that occurred in the previous quarter compared with the quarter before. This is absolutely because we have committed healthcare workers working hard every day throughout the pandemic—they are tired, they are fatigued. They tell me that, but do you know what? They love their work. They know that this is a government, the Andrews Labor government, that has their back. We will work with, not against, our healthcare workers, and we will continue to do that in order to ensure that Victorians can access the very best health care. I want to make this point: it is important to remind the house and to assure all Victorians that for category 1 surgery—that is, the sickest people in our state—99.7 per cent of those people were all seen within the clinically approved time line, which is 30 days. The handful of patients that were not seen during that time was as a consequence of either their illness and not being ready for surgery or, indeed, their surgeon’s illness.

Mr Edbrooke interjected.

The SPEAKER: The member for Frankston is warned.

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:04): I thank the minister for her answer. Given surgery waitlist data is not released publicly by the government for all regional hospitals, how many regional Victorians like Maurie are among the record near 90 000 Victorians still waiting for pain-relieving or life-changing surgery?

Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:05): I want to make this point: here in Victoria, whilst we have some 85 health services, they work together as a system. Again I suggest that if the Leader of the Opposition is really interested in Maurie’s wellbeing, if he cares about patients, if he is more interested in people than politics, then what he will do is send me the details and I can ask the department to get in touch with him.

Mr Guy: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, I just ask if you could draw the minister back to my supplementary question, which was around the number of regional Victorians who are on a hospital elective surgery waiting list. That was the substance of my substantive question.

The SPEAKER: I ask the minister to come back to the question.

Ms THOMAS: Again, I am very happy to provide further information, including that every person on a waitlist in this state is being actively managed by the healthcare system.