Wednesday, 18 June 2025

Health system

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (14:32): My question is to the Minister for Health. Yesterday you boasted in response to the tragic death of a man waiting for an ambulance that:

We have a plan that we are implementing, which is paying dividends …

However, code 1 response times have worsened since last quarter in 23 local government areas. Only 65.6 per cent of statewide code 1 responses are arriving within 15 minutes, well below the target of 85 per cent. Ambulance data is being falsified while Victorians die waiting for ambulances. On top of this, there are now 60,000 Victorians stuck on the surgical waitlist, with the average wait time a staggering 188 days. Victorians have recorded the lowest number of community mental health service hours in the last year, and all the while Cranbourne and Craigieburn community hospitals sit empty. Are these the dividends the minister is boasting about?

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Wendouree! Order! Members on my right! I could not hear the end of the member’s question. Could you please finish the question again. Presumably there was a question at the end, and I would like to hear it.

Roma BRITNELL: And all the while Cranbourne and Craigieburn community hospitals sit empty. Are these the dividends the minister is boasting about?

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:34): As I was listening to that question I was reflecting once again on the fake ambulance that Matthew Guy delivered, the fake patients that the member for Polwarth knows quite a lot about –

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, it is a question of relevance, Deputy Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The minister has been going 17 seconds. I am sure the minister is getting to the question. I remind ministers and members to use correct titles.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: I might start at the end of that question, which contained a number of things that are simply not true. The member did ask me again about the community hospitals at Cranbourne and indeed at Craigieburn, which gives me an opportunity once again to talk about the patients that we had the pleasure of visiting, receiving dialysis at the Craigieburn community hospital. For the benefit of the opposition member, again at Cranbourne I had the opportunity of visiting with the member for Cranbourne to see that facility almost complete. The commissioning money has been delivered in this year’s budget. You can only open hospitals if you build them, and that is something that those on the other side have zero experience in – zero experience in actually delivering a hospital to the people of Victoria – whereas we have a $15 billion pipeline of health service delivery here in the state of Victoria.

Once again I note that every time those on the other side of the chamber get up in this place and talk down our healthcare workers, they disrespect our healthcare workers. It is our healthcare workers who are at the forefront of leading reform in this state, be it the delivery of the planned surgery blueprint and the huge reforms that we have seen there, which will enable us to –

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, it is usually the healthcare workers that are exposing the failings in the system.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: What is the point of order?

Bridget Vallence: On relevance, I would ask you to ask the minister to be relevant to the question.

Juliana Addison interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Wendouree is warned. The minister to continue. She has been relevant to the question.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: I took the opportunity to confirm that part of that rambling statement was indeed about planned surgery, and this gives me an opportunity to tell you that when it comes to the delivery of category 1 planned surgeries in this state – that is of course urgent surgery –

Members interjecting.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: Can I let the member on the other side know that Victoria is the only jurisdiction in the nation that delivers all of its category 1 surgeries within the clinically recommended time. Not only that, but because of the investments our government has made, we have seen significant decreases in the time to treat category 2 and category 3 surgeries. I also know – and one would think the member on the other side, given her own background, would know this – it is a clinician that makes the decision about when a patient is ready to undergo surgery. Surgery is always a significant procedure, so the clinician will work with the patient to ensure that they are optimised for surgery.

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (14:38): Minister, ambulance ramping continues to be a serious problem, with Box Hill Hospital having wait times on stretchers for almost 3 hours and Maroondah Hospital over 5 hours. When will the plan that is allegedly being implemented result in clinically recommended wait times for all metropolitan hospitals being met?

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:39): Once again, that was a bit hard to understand. That was a question that was all over the place and shows zero understanding of how our health system actually works. I think the member may have been talking about transfer times – that is, from an ambulance to our emergency department – but who knows.

Members interjecting.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: I am talking about hospital transfer times. That is when a patient goes from an ambulance to an emergency department, and the implementation of the standards for timely ambulance and emergency care has seen in some health services a 10 per cent improvement in that transfer time.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, again on relevance, the minister is not actually answering the question. It is about ambulance ramping and stretcher times. She is not being relevant to the question whatsoever.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The minister was being relevant to the question and its supplementary. The minister has concluded her answer.