Thursday, 20 November 2025

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (22:26): (2162) My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Health. Minister, quite frankly, you should resign from your position given the disgraceful disregard for what is happening within our health system, as has been highlighted with the shocking story of 91-year-old Lois Casboult. I know you will not do that, as you and all of your colleagues refuse to take any sort of responsibility or be accountable for the failings within your portfolio areas. The failings in health are significant, and this case of Lois Casboult highlights just how broken the system is. On Sunday Lois had a fall and as a result has a broken pelvis, bleeding on the brain and extensive bruising. It was evening and her daughter found her and thinks she had been on the floor for about an hour, as she had tried to reach her mobile phone. She was bleeding profusely, and so her daughter Jan immediately phoned for an ambulance. Paramedics arrived and phoned the virtual ED to get advice from a doctor. After a considerable amount of time – almost an hour according to Jan – the doctor said her mum was not eligible for transportation to an emergency department. Together with her husband, the paramedics carried Lois to the family car to be taken to hospital. What sort of state are we living in if a 91-year-old woman who has hit her head and is bleeding and in pain cannot get an ambulance? What sort of government have we got if they say that this debacle does not need investigating? It is a heartless and incompetent government that has its priorities all wrong. I am so appalled at what has occurred and that the minister and Premier have dismissed this case, saying nothing more needs to be done or investigated. As Jan, Lois’s daughter, quite correctly said, ‘What if it was your mother, Premier?’ The action I seek for the minister is to release the CAD times – the computer aided dispatch system – including information on timelines, on what time Lois’s daughter requested an ambulance, the time the ambulance was dispatched, the arrival time of paramedics and when the paramedics left, and what time the paramedics were finally able to speak with the virtual ED doctor. It goes across both of her portfolios – responsibilities for ambulance services and health. This is a very important issue, and Minister, I would like this information urgently, because it is all available. Lois, her family and the Victorian public deserve answers, not spin and hollow words.