Questions without notice and ministers statements
Pharmacotherapy services
David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:01): (305) My question is for the Minister for Mental Health and is related to pharmacotherapy access. There have been several articles published this year and a whole special on the ABC 7.30 report focusing on the broken pharmacotherapy system in Victoria. As I have raised with the minister previously and Ms Payne brought up in question time yesterday, this system fragility came to a head with the temporary closure of the Frankston health clinic recently. I thank the minister’s office for briefing me on what the government was doing in response to this, but it seems that the government’s pop-up clinic solution has not been adequate to meet the need. I have heard stories of patients of the clinic relapsing and others who are still waiting to get a call-back for an appointment weeks later. My question for the minister is: how many patients were able to actually access pharmacotherapy services through the pop-up clinic?
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:02): I thank Mr Limbrick for his important question. Of course opioid pharmacotherapies are a really important part of the range of different service options to treat those who are drug-dependent, and they do enable people who undertake that form of therapy to break the cycle of drug use and to re-engage with education, employment and, more generally, the community. So I do accept the premise of your question, Mr Limbrick, that these are really critical services. It is why we have taken steps to fund some of the gaps in the current system.
I think as I indicated to the house yesterday, GP services are the primary responsibility of the Commonwealth government under the Medicare system, but we know that there are gaps in the current system, and that is why we have been investing an additional $10 million into the Victorian pharmacotherapy system through the 2023–24 budget allocation. That is to address that surge capacity and to address some of the things that I noted in my response to Ms Payne yesterday – that there is a shortage of specialist GPs in this area and we want to be able to take steps to increase the capacity across our GP network. We are funding a boost to the capacity of nine specialist pharmacotherapy clinics across Victoria and delivering additional staffing that would allow more than 360 more patients a year to receive care. In addition to that we are also pursuing a number of workforce initiatives, including new clinic placements for GPs, clinical supervision, education and mentoring across Victoria and an expanded case management coordination and liaison capacity, and of course increasing the number of nurse practitioners.
In terms of your specific question in relation to how many people have accessed the pop-up arrangements that were temporarily in place before the GP in Frankston reopened, I am very happy to see whether that data is available and provide that to you following question time today. As I did indicate to you – and I think my office followed up with your office – we are very happy to take any issues that you are encountering from the local community in the Frankston area and follow up with the department on any issues of concern.
David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:05): I thank the minister for that offer, and I am sure we will take it up. On a related note, it is my understanding that the main prescribing doctor that went on leave and triggered this crisis is back now and seeing patients again, but it is also my understanding that he is going to take leave again in November, a matter of weeks away. That means we are only a few weeks away from the same problem that we had earlier this year. Does the minister have any additional plans for how the next gap, which we are going to see in November, will be managed, or are telehealth and pop-up clinics the best that we have got for pharmacotherapy clients?
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:06): The department had already been assisting with the initial period of leave that that particular GP had taken, so I will ensure that there is close work happening if there is indeed, as you suggest, going to be another period of leave. It will be important to make sure that the community in Frankston has adequate service provision, and I will follow that up after question time.