Thursday, 28 August 2025

Western Victoria Region

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (12:58): (1799) My question is for the Minister for Health. I had a constituent call for an ambulance due to his mother having a fall. After no action for an hour and a half, he called again. The response was, ‘We’ll call you back in 15 minutes.’ Fifteen minutes later my constituent calls again, and they say, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll be there in 10 minutes.’ So when the ambulance gets there he says, ‘Where did you guys come from?’ The ambulance officers say, ‘Beaufort station. It’s just around the corner – 10 minutes away.’ And my constituent says, ‘Well, why did it take so long?’ ‘Oh, we only got the call 10 minutes ago.’ After that they spent 7 hours in an emergency department in a hospital. Minister, this is an absolute disgrace. I ask the minister what she is going to do about this and the many other instances like this that are being inflicted on Victorians.