Thursday, 10 September 2026

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:00): (1477) My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, an elderly patient with sepsis waited 15 hours for transfer from an ambulance to an overcrowded emergency department at Ballarat Base Hospital, a very dangerous situation. VAU Secretary Danny Hill has said wait times at Ballarat Base Hospital are consistently poor. He also said:

Members report that staff are really quite distressed and broken by how busy it is.

Minister, why has your government failed to address the ambulance ramping, ED wait times and workforce shortages that are putting patient safety at risk?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Special Minister of State) (12:01): I thank Ms Crozier for her question. At the outset I do want to thank our staff right across the health system, including our paramedics and including our doctors and nurses and all of the support staff, who are working incredibly hard to care for Victorians every day. We know that some patients are experiencing long wait times, including at Ballarat, and I understand that this can be very difficult and distressing. It can be distressing for patients and their families. I absolutely acknowledge that. But like health systems across Australia, we are seeing record demand here in Victoria for our emergency department supports, and we are also seeing more complex patients and pressures across the hospital system, including the need to get patients into the right bed or the care that they need. I want to be very clear, though: the sickest and most critically ill patients will continue to be seen as an absolute priority in the system.

We do know that there is more work to be done, and that is why we have provided $58 million to hospitals to improve patient flow, including at Grampians Health, and of course our other important investments in the virtual emergency department and urgent care clinics are helping to take some of the less urgent cases off the pressure that EDs are experiencing. I have mentioned a number of times in the chamber this week the important redevelopment project at Ballarat, because some of the infrastructure limitations at Ballarat are actually part of the problem.

I do take these concerns that are raised by our health workforce very seriously, and I will always listen to our paramedics, our doctors and our nurses. The department and Grampians Health are already working together to address these critical issues within emergency care services, including patient flow and access to beds. That work will include bringing together the health service, the relevant unions and relevant stakeholders on the ground to identify the practical improvements that can be made, and this has been working very effectively in some other health services where that collaborative effort has been a focus.

I of course cannot speculate about an individual patient’s clinical circumstances without all the facts, but if there are additional facts that Ms Crozier has with her that she would like to provide me, I would be happy to follow up any individual circumstances or cases. But I reiterate that the government is looking very closely at how we can continue to support our health services.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:04): Minister, there is pressure right across the system, where ramping and transfer times and the like are putting patient safety at risk. That was one example, a very dangerous one – sepsis is a very serious health issue. Despite telling the house two weeks ago it would be available ‘very shortly’, you steadfastly refuse to release the health data, including ambulance response and transfer times. So much for integrity under a Carroll government. Minister, you have the data. What is the average time for ED patients to be seen at Ballarat Base Hospital?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Special Minister of State) (12:04): The data will be released in due course, Ms Crozier. You are not in a position to make assertions about where that data is at and whether I have been briefed on that data or not. I will make that point. I will also –

Members interjecting.

Ingrid STITT: In addition, Ms Crozier made a few comments in the preamble to her supplementary question. I again make the offer that if there are individual patient circumstances that you want me to follow up, I will. The government is singularly focused on supporting our health services to deliver the –

Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, President, I know the minister is struggling here. She has only been in the role for – she is my fifth health minister. She is really struggling and deflecting. I was asking about the data, not about individual patient details. I would ask you to bring the minister back to responding to my question.

Jaclyn Symes: On the point of order, President, a point of order should not be used as an opportunity to insult and degrade another member of Parliament in the course of answering a question.

The PRESIDENT: There are rulings about questions being provocative as well. Minister, have you finished your answer?

Ingrid STITT: I think I was being talked over.

The PRESIDENT: I think that is part of the problem, Ms Crozier. I appreciate you raising the point of order, but when you are yelling, I hear your yelling more than the answer. If the minister could continue in silence, then we can make a better judgement I think.

Ingrid STITT: I was in the process of trying to be heard on the point that our government will always back our healthcare workforce in and do whatever we can to support our health services to deliver the world-class care Victorians deserve.

Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, President, I am not criticising the health workforce. This is about patient care and patients. Where is the minister on that? Does she not care about the patient?

The PRESIDENT: Ms Crozier, please. We were talking yesterday about gesturing across the chamber being unparliamentary.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:07): I move:

That the minister’s responses be taken into consideration on the next day of meeting.

Motion agreed to.