Tuesday, 22 February 2022

Elective surgery waiting lists

Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (13:00): Victoria’s public waitlist for elective surgery is at a record number of 80 826 Victorians—and that was as at 31 December 2021. Since then Victoria has had a statewide code brown that has lasted weeks and the ongoing suspension of surgery for both the public and private systems. Through October to December there were 1000 Victorians being added to the waitlist per day, taking that number up to nearly 81 000. These are thousands of Victorians who are waiting in pain and languishing on the waitlist, and it does not even account for the thousands that are now on the private elective surgery waitlist too. This elective surgery is vital surgery; it is essential surgery. It is surgery that Victorians need.

I am really concerned that the government is doing too little too late. Hospital administrators, surgeons and nurses were telling me weeks ago that there was capacity in the system, yet the government refused to budge and look at the capacity that could have been worked through if they had spoken to these operators. Last week in the Pandemic Declaration Accountability and Oversight Committee public hearings several CEOs from the public system told the committee that no private staff were redeployed into the public system. It is an absolute outrage that so many Victorians are waiting, languishing, on these waitlists in pain, their quality of life deteriorating. Quite frankly their lives have been put at risk because of the ongoing mismanagement and lack of preparation by the Andrews government.