Wednesday, 4 August 2021

Ambulance services

Mr M O’BRIEN (Malvern—Leader of the Opposition) (14:06): My question is to the Minister for Health. Earlier this year Judith activated her personal alarm, fearing she was having a stroke. After first being told that an ambulance would be called, Judith was then told to take a taxi because of the long wait for an ambulance. The taxidriver did not know where the hospital was, let alone where the emergency department was. Minister, how is it fair that a seriously ill elderly woman is told by your government to take a taxi to hospital?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:07): Can I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. As has been my practice in answering questions when they relate to specific cases, it is not my practice to trample on people’s privacy and rights when it comes to their particular circumstances, and I would, particularly given the track record of the Leader of the Opposition in some of these matters, respectfully suggest that there is sometimes a world of difference between what the honourable Leader of the Opposition asserts and what subsequent evidence supports.

Having said that, in regard to the broader issue that the honourable member points to, we know that our ambulance services provide amongst the best possible support in the world, let alone in the country, and have particularly been doing that during the processes of the global pandemic. It is also true that as part of the clinical assessments that our health professionals make in the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority 000 ambulance triaging processes they make those clinical judgements based on the circumstances and the evidence that is presented to them. Occasionally that involves taking the decision that non-emergency transport options are provided to people. They are always based on the clinical assessments and are subject to changing assessments as things go through the system. That is a long-established practice—it has been a long-established practice for many, many years. If the honourable member does have specific circumstances that suggest to the contrary beyond that, I would ask, perhaps with the agreement of the patient—who was by the sound of it actually triaged in what would appear to be an appropriate manner—that that material be provided to my office, and I undertake to investigate the circumstances.

But I do not resile from the general principle that it is our ambulance professionals who triage these decisions based on clinical and medical advice as it comes to them, so as to make sure that they are dealt with. And that is why this government’s investment included in the most recent budget some $756 million, the largest slice of which, over $400 million, is to go precisely into these services of more ambulances, more triaging processes and more responses to the global pandemic arrangements that have seen us through this.

Mr M O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister is debating the question. Judith wants to know why she was sent to hospital in a taxi, not an ambulance—not to hear the minister’s boasting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition knows that is not a point of order. The minister has concluded his answer.

Mr M O’BRIEN (Malvern—Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): I have a question for the minister for health, ambulance and apparently taxi services. What training in patient care has the health department provided to taxi companies and taxidrivers who are forced to transport ill Victorians to hospital as a result of this government’s ambulance crisis?

Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:10): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his supplementary question, and really I think it belittles the office of Leader of the Opposition to ask such a foolish question with tongue in cheek, knowing full well that our ambulance paramedics are amongst the best in the world. I would refer—

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will resume his seat.

Mr FOLEY: the honourable member to my earlier answer.

Mr M O’Brien: On a point of order first of all, Speaker, for the minister to continue talking when you have called him to order is a disrespect to you and to the house. He constantly does it, and I ask you to bring him back to order. On a further point of order, Speaker, the minister is debating the question. It is a serious question about if the government is going to be sending ill Victorians to hospital in taxis, what training the health department has provided to taxi companies and taxidrivers. The minister is not here to debate the question, he is here to answer it, and I ask you to bring him back to answering it.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! I will not have members shouting over me when I am trying to provide an answer to the points of order that have been raised. Firstly, a number of members ignore from time to time my rulings in this place, and I will ask those members to leave the chamber without notice if they continue to ignore those rulings. Secondly, the minister had only just begun to provide his answer. I would ask him to come to answering the question that has been asked.

Mr FOLEY: Thank you, Speaker. I would refer the Leader of the Opposition to my answer to his substantive question in regard to the fact that our paramedics, our triaging services, our clinical basis of decision-making of those issues are amongst the best in the world, if not the best in this country.