Tuesday, 17 October 2023

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (16:44): South-West Coast is fortunate to be home to so many committed health professionals. All our health workers have been instrumental in getting us through the recent pandemic and the challenges of an ever-increasing workload due to Victoria’s doctor shortage crisis. One of the many talented specialists in the South-West Coast that we call home is Dr Philip Gan, who is a leading surgeon. He has developed a technique where he minimises the invasiveness and the trauma of surgery. Dr Gan has invented an advanced keyhole laparoscopic device, with patents granted globally. This invention helps patients recover as painlessly and as quickly as possible from gastrointestinal surgery, reducing time in hospital by half, helping our stretched hospital resources and reducing hospital surgery waitlists. It is very complex for doctors to get their inventions into the hands of more surgeons without external support, due to processes like expensive clinical trials, and therefore support from government is necessary if we want to see more patients benefit from this invention. This is a great opportunity for our state and one that could be easily missed. Dr Gan’s application should be revisited by the government so that we can see our healthcare workers reduce our hospital waiting list and get people back into life sooner. I thank Dr Gan and all health professionals for their commitment to our community.