Wednesday, 19 March 2025

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (19:04): (1073) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is to fund the Royal Flying Doctor Service community transport program beyond 30 June this year. The Royal Flying Doctor Service community transport program offers a vital service to community members aged over 65 to go from home to health appointments.

We know that throughout the Mildura electorate and right across regional and rural Victoria health care can be quite some time away. For those over 65, driving those distances can be quite troublesome. I had the absolute pleasure of running into a driver, Pat, and Mrs Mattschoss, who has been a user of the service in Robinvale for quite some time. I ran into them down the street last week. Mrs Mattschoss is a huge fan of this service. She and her husband use it often. They are elderly, but she is so full of joy when she speaks about this program, because not only of the ability for her and her husband to get to health appointments from Robinvale and Euston to Mildura most of the time, but it is also the social connection. That is what the volunteer drivers also tell me, because this program is completely volunteer led. But it does cost money. Brilliant programs such as this do cost money.

We have heard – and I have raised in this house multiple times this year – that the Victorian patient transport assistance scheme is problematic at the moment with the length of time it takes for applicants to have their forms resolved. It can take now up to eight months. So I am asking for the minister to fund the Royal Flying Doctor Service to the tune of $2 million. That will keep it going in the 10 ‍communities: Robinvale, Warracknabeal, Cobram, Heathcote, Lakes Entrance, Sale, Numurkah, Foster, Central Gippsland, St Arnaud and Rochester. That $2 million – which does not seem like a lot ‍– will keep this program going in those 10 communities, which is vital, because without this, people would not get to their healthcare appointments. $8 million, however, would be able to fund the Royal Flying Doctor Service to take this statewide and allow access for other places where there is still a big gap.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service do an amazing job with this community transport program. The drivers get just as much out of it as the clients do. I urge the Minister for Health to fund this program and give assurance to those involved.