Wednesday, 19 June 2024

 Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (19:17): (719) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is for the minister to take urgent action to address the unacceptably long surgery waiting lists, in particular the extended period Victorians are being forced to wait for cataract surgery. A constituent came to me recently, he says, out of sheer desperation after being given the run-around regarding his planned cataract surgery. Initially he was informed the surgery would be conducted in April this year, but April came and went, so he followed up to see what the hold-up was. He was informed there was no government funding and therefore his surgery would be delayed indefinitely. The man is blind in one eye and the other is deteriorating rapidly. Knowing this, I made urgent representations to the Minister for Health recently, asking for contact to be made with my constituent and for a surgery date to be set. Last week my constituent contacted me again, and he had just received notice that the waitlist time to receive cataract surgery, which he desperately needs, is now three years. The alternative he was given was to fork out $8000, as a pensioner, and the surgery could be done right away.

The system is broken. We have vulnerable people in need of urgent care who are being failed by this government and its mismanagement of the public health system. It beggars belief that despite the dire state of the public health system Labor has made significant cuts in recent state government budgets. Things are so dire that there are reports that nurses are being forced to carry out cleaning and laundry duties. The forced hospital amalgamations that are on the horizon under Labor will only exacerbate this problem. For too long this government has exploited our regional health services as a cash cow to bolster its financial mismanagement of Melbourne projects. The current funding level is just barely enough to cover wages and basic expenses, such as food and medicines, and has suffocated hospitals and left them unable to replace equipment that has reached the end of its life or recruit more staff when necessary. The mergers will punish local health services and, importantly, punish Victorians who need the best in urgent health care. The government must take decisive action to address this unacceptably long surgery waitlist under the public health system and rule out the catastrophic planned hospital amalgamations.