Wednesday, 15 September 2021

 Ms BATH (Eastern Victoria) (14:20): (1515) My adjournment matter this afternoon is for the Minister for Health in the other place, and it relates to the ongoing lack of funding which hinders our bush nursing centres. The action I seek from the minister is to fund bush nursing centres in line with CPI. This is not actually a big ask, but they are being squeezed tighter and tighter. Our bush nursing centres certainly play a vital role in supporting remote areas in regional Victoria. From the first responders to the provision of palliative care, our bush nurses do an amazing job, often working 24/7 to provide that health service and in actual fact to take the pressure off patients from moving on and having to go further afield.

Since 2021 the Swifts Creek Bush Nursing Centre has been providing drive-through testing for local residents who present with symptoms that could potentially be coronavirus. Rather than directing them on to Bairnsdale and therefore spreading the virus even further, they swab them on location and then they can return home to isolate. They have been also vaccinating residents three days a week. What happens when it is done three days a week is that other services have to be diminished in order to continue to support this venture, and it is very important that we fight the pandemic in this way. To administer 140 vaccinations three days a week, as I said, other services have been compromised, and they cannot take their walk-in patients as normal.

Now, one would think that it is not too big a task to ask for funding to be provided in line with CPI. Swifts Creek lost $12 000 in the current financial year and is set to lose $19 000 next year. This is paltry in terms of the government coffers, but it actually means a huge deal to the residents and this particular bush nursing centre. And it is replicable across the other bush nursing centres. The action I seek from the minister is to provide this ongoing funding so that bush nursing centres will not have to make a compromise in what services they deliver to rural and regional people.