Rural and regional health
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (17:49): (474) My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Health, and it is in relation to rural and regional health services. As we know, the health system in this state remains under enormous pressure. There are many, many issues that are affecting our health system. It is my understanding that health services are being challenged by the department and by the minister to provide some answers around reducing back-of-house staffing costs, and they have been given a week to come up with answers as to how they will actually achieve this. We know that in December there was a report from the department, a health services partnerships evaluation steering committee report, and in that report it spoke about legislative change, including the amalgamation of local health networks. So there is no doubt, despite the government saying that amalgamations are not occurring, that the pressure on these health services is such that they are going to be forced and squeezed and made to join with other health networks to ensure that they are still operating.
What that means for rural and regional communities is that the services will be diminished, and we have seen that through the amalgamation of the Horsham and Ballarat health services and the services that have been reduced in Horsham. You ask the member for Lowan, and she will tell you specific stories about what has occurred there and what locals are telling her – what doctors are telling Ms Kealy and me around those towns that have been affected and the lack of health services in those areas. This is a serious issue where health services are being further diminished, and communities across rural and regional Victoria are the ones that are losing out. This government has no regard for those areas. The action I seek from the minister is to provide an answer to the house on exactly how many jobs will be lost as a result of this directive given that health services are being asked to reduce back-of-house staff costs within the week.