Tuesday, 15 October 2024

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (19:03): (1181) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Ambulance Services. The action that I seek is for the minister to fully fund transport for regional dialysis patients who have recently had their transfer services withdrawn by Ambulance Victoria. Ambulance Victoria has recently changed the rules around patient transfer to and from hospital, and I have received complaints from several constituents who have been particularly impacted by this decision because they require multiple visits to the hospital every week for dialysis treatment. Under the previous arrangement patient transfer for dialysis patients was arranged and paid for by Ambulance Victoria and carried out by private taxi services. Labor has cut funding to health and ambulance services, and now Ambulance Victoria have applied the criteria for access to transfers differently and will not provide patient transfer anymore unless the patient requires medical supervision during transport. If a patient meets this new threshold, transport that was previously provided by a taxi will now be performed by an ambulance both to and from the hospital. This will add to the ambulance crisis as ambulances will be off the road and unavailable for emergency response while they are transporting and waiting for dialysis patients. But this service is only for those few who will require medical supervision. Most dialysis patients will now be expected to make their own way to and from the hospital, and health services have told them to drive themselves or use alternative transport options like catching a bus, calling a taxi or asking family or a friend to help. This might work in metro areas, but none of these options are sustainable for rural dialysis patients.

Dialysis patients are a special case: they must have treatment three times a week, and it is a matter of life and death that they receive that treatment consistently. Friends and family members might be able to take the day off and help in an emergency, but most cannot be available three times a week every week. Many rural towns do not have buses connecting them to regional centres, so public transport is not an option either. Driving themselves to and from the hospital is not safe for dialysis patients, who commonly report side effects of dizziness, limb numbness and fatigue after treatment. Many dialysis patients are also elderly, and rural patients would have to travel long distances on high-speed roads that are riddled with potholes because of the Labor government’s neglect of regional road maintenance. Treatment side effects and poor road conditions are a dangerous mix of factors that could result in tragic consequences. Lastly, taking a taxi is not financially sustainable. For rural patients the long distance to a treatment unit would make taxi fares run into hundreds of dollars, while the government subsidy for the multipurpose taxi program only covers 50 per cent of the cost and is capped at $60 per trip and $2180 per year.