Thursday, 18 August 2022

Health system

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is to the Minister for Health. Another horrendous example of overworked health staff trying to patch up our under-resourced health system has emerged again from the Box Hill Hospital, this time with a teenage boy finishing—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Premier!

Mr GUY: this time with a teenage boy finishing six months of chemo having to wait 27 hours on a couch to be seen. Overworked—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Members will come to order. I need to hear the question.

Mr GUY: this time with a teenage boy finishing six months of chemo having to wait 27 hours on a couch to be seen. Overworked and exhausted nurses, having had just a few hours sleep, were in tears trying to explain the absence of any available hospital beds. When will this government finally admit that it has grossly under-resourced our health sector, and that the substandard conditions being experienced by staff and patients will only be solved when fixing the health crisis becomes the government’s biggest priority?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for South Barwon will leave the chamber for the period of 1 hour. The member for Buninyong is warned.

Member for South Barwon withdrew from chamber.

Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:20): I am indeed aware of the issue in relation to this young man and the situation at Eastern Health. I want to also thank the member for Box Hill, who has written to me about this issue. I need to make a couple of points. To suggest that our government is not investing in health care is simply wrong. Our government has a $12 billion investment, a pandemic repair plan. We are recruiting an additional 7000 staff, of which 5000 will be nurses. Whenever the Premier and I travel about our healthcare system I want to let you know that our nurses tell us they are tired, they are fatigued—it has been really tough. But they tell us that they love the work that they do.

Ms Ward interjected.

The SPEAKER: The member for Eltham is warned.

Ms THOMAS: They want to continue to work in the system, and they want to thank us for the investments that we are making. Once again I will make the point: it can be discomfiting, I absolutely understand that. I know, like all parents in this place, there is nothing worse than having a child who is sick, and you want them to receive the very best care as quickly as possible. In our system all children, all adults will be treated according to their acuity of illness, and we will ensure that they can get the very best health care that they need.

I do want to alert the house to one of the challenges that our public health system here in Victoria has experienced, and this is of course bed block. Bed block has a real impact, including in cases like this of this young man. This is where patients who are medically well are unable to go home because they have nowhere to go. And do you know why they have nowhere to go? Because of the inaction and mismanagement of the previous federal Liberal government. These are patients waiting for aged care, waiting for their NDIS packages to be approved. So this is a real challenge. Thank goodness for the people of Victoria we now have a federal government that cares about our older Victorians and that cares about people living with disability and wants to ensure that we can take medically well people and put them in accommodation that is so much better for them and indeed for all Victorians.

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:23): At this moment there are up to 50 emergency patients waiting in a tent outside the Box Hill Hospital. Day after day these cases are brought to the government’s attention, and day after day we keep learning of patients and staff being failed by a system that was not properly resourced long before COVID. At what stage—

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Buninyong can leave the chamber for the period of 1 hour. I need to hear the question.

Member for Buninyong withdrew from chamber.

Mr GUY: At what stage does the minister finally admit that the health system is in crisis and that every day Victorians are dying as well as tens of thousands having their health compromised because of this government’s failure to manage the health system?

Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:24): Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Latrobe Regional Hospital, a hospital that was built by our government that is now being upgraded again by our government to continue to deliver world-class care to the people of the Latrobe Valley—people who have over very many decades been completely neglected by those on the other side. Our government will always invest in the health care of all Victorians. We have a plan in response to the pandemic. Those on the other side choose to ignore the impact that the pandemic has had on our healthcare system. Every time they get up and ask a question here they let us all know how little they understand how our system works and what the work is that our paramedics do, and they expose that they do not care. They are not about patients, they are only about politics.