Tuesday, 19 March 2024

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Hospital funding

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:02): My question is to the Minister for Health. In the first six months of this financial year Victoria’s public hospitals have amassed a record $1.5 billion deficit. Will reining in this deficit mean cuts to staff and services?

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:03): I welcome the question from the Leader of the Opposition. Let me be clear: the once-in-a-generation global pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on our health system here in Victoria – not just here in Victoria but in every other state and indeed around the world. And if you do not ask me, you can ask the member for Malvern, because the other night he and I had the good fortune to have dinner with the Irish Minister for Health, who also explained the very many challenges that their health system is facing and indeed how impressed he was with so much of what we are doing here in Victoria.

Let me outline some of the challenges that our health system is facing at the moment. We have seen record demand on our health service system from a growing population. People are presenting with more complex health issues. We are living longer, but we are living with a greater burden of disease.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, we are a minute into the answer and the minister has not yet addressed the question. I would ask you to bring the minister to the question.

The SPEAKER: The minister was referring to the public hospital system. She is being relevant to the question that was asked.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: We can sit back and admire these problems, or we can get on and do something about it. Let me say this: our government has invested this year $25.8 billion into our health service system. This is a huge amount of investment, and year on year our government has contributed and invested more in health than ever before. Let me also make the point –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Gippsland South will leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Gippsland South withdrew from chamber.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: Let me make this point: we know that health care is more expensive to deliver now than it was prior to the pandemic, so there are a range of challenges. Indeed the member for Gippsland East raised with me just the other day the concern in his region that Bairnsdale hospital is being held to ransom by a private provider of radiology services. So there are a range of complex challenges. I might say the member for South-West Coast routinely talks to me about the challenges getting the healthcare workers –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, as previous Speakers have ruled, the minister does have to actually address the question in responding. The minister has not actually addressed the question.

The SPEAKER: The minister was being relevant to the question.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: As I was saying, the member for South-West Coast has talked to me about the challenges of recruiting the healthcare workers that we need. Let me say again: the price of delivering that health care has continued to increase, so our government is working with the community on the ways in which we can develop a health system that is fit for purpose and that puts people at the centre of our healthcare system, not politics, which is all those on the other side are interested in.

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:06): Will the minister categorically rule out hospital amalgamations to reduce this deficit?

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:07): I welcome the opportunity to answer this supplementary question. Just the other day the Premier and I were at Latrobe Regional Hospital. What a fantastic hospital it is – a hospital, I might remind you, that was sold off by those on the other side and that the Bracks Labor government had to buy back. So we will not take lectures from those on the other side about cuts to health care.

John Pesutto: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, can you please draw the minister back to the question?

The SPEAKER: The minister had strayed from the question that was asked. The minister to come back to the question.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: As I said earlier in my answer, our government knows that the health system is under pressure as a consequence of the impacts of the pandemic. We will do everything in our power, and it is my resolute commitment as health minister, to put people at the centre, patients at the centre, of the care that we deliver, not politics. That is all they are interested in: politics and profit.