Thursday, 27 August 2026

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:45): (2559) My question is for the Minister for Health. Constituents in Ballarat have recently shared their experiences of visiting Ballarat hospital emergency department with my office. While I sincerely appreciate the challenges faced by emergency staff, who are clearly doing a brilliant job and working under extreme pressure, serious issues relating to excessive wait times despite urgent triage categorisation, patient and staff safety, and cleanliness and infection control in treatment areas have been raised with me. We have also heard that an 80-year-old, who arrived by ambulance to the emergency department with chest pain after suffering a heart attack requiring an urgent angiogram to ascertain what treatment he required, was in the emergency department for 48 hours due to a lack of hospital beds. While the redevelopment of the hospital would provide a bigger ED, without proper funding for staff, many of these problems would remain. Minister, will you commit to ensuring that Ballarat emergency department receives the funding it needs to operate sustainably and safely in terms of both infrastructure and staffing?