Health system
Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:09): My question is to the Minister for Health. Brodie Jones from Corio has a chronic reflux condition. She has been on a waiting list just to see a specialist for over two years. She stated, ‘I’m on strong medication every day. I get terrible reflux which keeps me awake at night and causes me anxiety. I have been referred to Barwon Health and I’m on a semi-urgent waiting list for their gastroenterology clinic category 2. My waiting time is now approximately 26 months just to see them’. There is concern that Brodie’s condition may worsen if she is not properly diagnosed. What does the minister have to say to Brodie, who is having to wait now 26 months just to be seen due to an overworked and under-resourced health system?
Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:09): I thank the member for his question, and my thoughts indeed are with Brodie. Reflux is obviously very uncomfortable. What I would suggest, however, is that Brodie continue to meet with her general practitioner and ensure that she receives the care from her GP that she obviously needs and deserves.
I will make this point: as everyone in this house well knows, our health system here in Victoria, just like the health system in New South Wales, as indeed the Premier noted yesterday, is under unprecedented pressure as a consequence of the global pandemic. We are just coming out of a period when, thankfully, we are seeing a decline in cases and indeed a decline in the number of people getting sick and requiring to be furloughed from health care. Thank goodness we are seeing that. But I want to remind those on the other side that at its peak we were seeing more than 2000 healthcare workers unable to attend work because they were furloughed at home with COVID. We have also seen a big winter season with unprecedented presentations for flu and many children being impacted by the childhood respiratory illness RSV.
However, our government is implementing our $12 billion pandemic repair plan. We are employing more staff, we are employing more nurses, we are backing our healthcare workers and we have a comprehensive plan in place to ensure that we can deliver to Victorians the health care that they deserve. We are getting on and implementing it. As I said, it is backed in with $12 billion, and that of course, I might say, is exclusive of the investment that was announced on Sunday, which will see an additional 17 000 nurses recruited and trained here in Victoria so that we are growing our workforce. We will not be cutting our workforce like those on the other side did, and we will not be cutting doctors or nurses from our public health system.
Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:12): Brodie is concerned that not only does she have to wait 26 months to be seen but that she will then be put on a waiting list with another 87 000 Victorians to be operated on. Brodie is here in the public gallery today. Can the minister now tell her why Victoria’s elective surgery waiting list has risen by over 35 000 people at a rate of three times that of New South Wales over the last two years, meaning people like her will have to wait longer than ever to get the surgery they need?
Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:13): Our government is also investing $1.5 billion in our COVID catch-up plan, which is the plan that we have in place to ensure that we can grow planned surgeries in this state to 245 000 by the middle of 2024. There are two key initiatives fully funded by this government to help us achieve this. They include the purchase of the Bellbird hospital and its conversion—the conversion of a private hospital into a public surgical centre—and the taking over of Frankston Private Hospital. It will be converted into a public surgical centre. This will enable us to deliver an additional 15 000 surgeries every year. I might also add that it is this government that has employed more than 4000 doctors in our system since we came to government.