Thursday, 18 May 2023

 Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (14:42): (162) My question today is for the Minister for Health, and I ask: when will the government fund a dialysis unit in Benalla? Patients requiring dialysis treatment are currently needing to travel considerable distances to health services in Wangaratta, Seymour, Shepparton and Mansfield. This travel comes with a cost, both financially and in terms of the additional strain on people requiring an essential medical treatment. This treatment burden for dialysis is already significant enough without adding extra travel time on top of this three times a week. Few towns the size of Benalla, with 15,000 people and a functioning health service, are without a dialysis unit, and it is not due to lack of demand. Several of my constituents, including Benalla’s 2021 Citizen of the Year June Howard, have raised this issue with me – so much so that funding this unit formed part of our election commitments. Our questions on notice about this matter have been ignored or inadequately answered, with confidentiality unreasonably cited as a cop-out for the lack of updates on this serious matter.