Tuesday, 30 August 2022

 Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (20:29): (2095) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Health. As we know, Victoria’s health crisis is not resolving. In fact we have got over 90 000 people on Victoria’s waitlist. The official figures are 87 000, but we know that not all Victorians who are waiting for vital surgery are included in that list. Those in Mildura, Wangaratta and Bairnsdale are not included in the list, and they are growing by hundreds each and every month. These Victorians have been waiting on the elective surgery waitlist, like Phil Strickland, who was spoken about today. He had been waiting for three years for his surgery and finally gave up, went to Adelaide and out of pocket paid $28 000 to get a total knee replacement. His life had been severely impacted because he could not work, he was in ongoing pain and he could not pay his bills. If he could not work, he could not pay his bills, so he had to take out that loan, and now he has got this huge debt—but he had no choice. These are the impacts of the decisions made by this government, such as a code brown and the extended lockdowns that forced people into seeking alternative care interstate.

Today the government made an announcement on the urgent care centres—25 to be established in Victoria. The Rural Doctors Association are concerned about GPs in country Victoria. There are not enough GPs in country areas already, and they are worried about where they are going to get these GPs to staff these urgent care centres that are largely based in Melbourne. The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine have said that these urgent care centres may result in a decrease in the small number of low-acuity patients who are presenting to urgent care centres but they will not relieve the enormous pressures that are, in their words, being ‘fuelled’ by patients who are seriously ill. These are not patients that can be seen in these urgent care centres. They need emergency care. The college for emergency medicine are saying that this initiative is not going to take away from these pressures because of the failure of the government to plan and to invest in and properly support our health system. This has not occurred—not over the last two years and certainly not over the last eight years—and we know that.

There are many, many issues around this. There are 25 clinics. They have to be staffed 16 hours a day, seven days a week, but there is no clarity around how they are going to be staffed. We know that there are ongoing failures through the government’s inaction in this space. The action I seek from the health minister is to provide where those staff are going to come from, because the government has announced today that they will commence in September or October. It is September in two days time, so I am seeking that urgent assurance from the minister.