Tuesday, 28 October 2025

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (22:48): (2038) My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Health. I refer to an article today in the Herald Sun which reports that St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, has been treating Indigenous patients ahead of all others in a fast-tracked care program. The action I seek from the minister is for her to reject this discriminatory approach to health care in Victoria and order that all patients are treated on the basis of need, not on the basis of ethnicity. I want to quote the article. It says:

Indigenous patients are receiving fast-tracked care over other Victorians at a major Melbourne emergency department, sparking allegations of discrimination.

In an Australian first, staff at St Vincent’s Hospital have been ordered to treat all Indigenous patients within 30 minutes of arrival, putting them ahead of other patients in some cases.

The move has prompted warnings that prioritising care based on race risked undermining confidence in a public system already under intense strain.

It means that these Indigenous patients must be seen within 30 minutes and puts them ahead of semi-urgent category 4 patients and non-urgent category patients, and there were more than 17,000 of those patients in the year to June. Of those, just 65 per cent of category 4 patients and 89 per cent of category 5 patients were seen within recommended times according to the Victorian Agency for Health Information. The hospital has now been nominated for a Victorian Public Healthcare Award, with a citation noting First Nations patients are now seen more promptly than non-Indigenous patients. I ask the minister: is that fair? Shouldn’t all patients be treated on the basis of sickness and need? I want to congratulate Ms Crozier, who raised this matter and who said exactly that – that the triaging of patients should be done on medical need, not based on the colour of your skin. So I ask the minister to ensure that all patients are treated equally.