Thursday, 7 April 2022

Bowel cancer screening

Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:25:345:): (1883) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Health. Now, as we know, elective surgery waitlists are, goodness knows, in excess of 100 000. They will be much more than that because there is a hidden waitlist. There is the private waitlist, but the public waitlist will be well in excess of 100 000. The government still will not tell Victorians what that waitlist number is. But the issue I want to raise tonight is the very serious issue around colonoscopies, and I want to place on record that former colleagues of ours Margaret Fitzherbert, who was in this place, and Donna Bauer, who was in the other place, who both suffered bowel cancer and who are both ambassadors of Bowel Cancer Australia, are doing a tremendous job in raising awareness and speaking out about the signs and symptoms to prevent what has occurred to them happening to others.

I want to say that this is a really significant issue because, as we know, prior to COVID there were years of wait times for colonoscopies in the public health system, and the last two years, with six lockdowns, have only exacerbated that wait time for many people waiting for colonoscopies—and of course the code brown. The impact of the lockdowns and the code brown has put a greater emphasis on the need for colonoscopies for those people, as has been highlighted in public reports. There has been Tanya Hartman and her terrible story—she lives in Portland, and she had a referral in mid-2019—and Rhiannon Coombs, who waited almost three years for a colonoscopy at a Melbourne hospital. That was partly due to the wait times in the hospitals, but, as I said, it was exacerbated by the lockdowns.

So there are many, many people who have missed out on colonoscopies. These are vital for surveillance of cancer. They are cancer screening tools, and they are absolutely critical to pick it up. Anyone who knows of anyone who has suffered from bowel cancer understands the true impacts of that. The action I seek is for the minister to provide to the house the number of Victorians who are waiting for colonoscopies as of today, 7 April. The minister needs to provide to the house the number of Victorians that need that vital surveillance that potentially will save their lives, and I think it is critical that Victorians have a transparent and thorough account from the Minister for Health and the Andrews government.