Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Health services

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): My question is to the Premier. The Premier admitted last week that there will be back-office job losses in the health system. Is a surgical booking clerk, responsible for coordinating surgical procedures, a back-office job which will be cut?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:22): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, and the context of the question from the Leader of the Opposition goes to the announcement last week that the Minister for Health and I made about how we are providing further additional funding, building on the record funding that we provided in this year’s state budget for our hospital system. In terms of how that funding is being allocated to our hospital system, we have been absolutely clear that every single dollar needs to be focused on the delivery of patient care. My focus is absolutely on frontline patient care, and that has been made clear to hospitals. Also it needs to be seen in that context that under our Labor government there is more money than ever before being supported –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance and standing order 58, the Premier is required to be succinct. The Premier has not yet addressed the substance of the direct question that was asked of her. It was a very specific question, and the Premier has not even come remotely close to dealing with the question.

The SPEAKER: I ask the Premier to come back to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: In terms of that additional record funding that has been provided to our hospital system, as I said before, I have been very clear in terms of where this funding needs to be allocated. It needs to be focused on frontline patient care. This additional funding that we have provided to our hospitals on top of the additional record funding that has been provided by this government is the funding that hospitals have told us they need to be able to deliver that frontline patient care.

Peter Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, on the issue of relevance, I ask you to bring the Premier back to answering the question as to whether a surgical booking clerk is actually a back-office job that will be lost in their job cuts.

The SPEAKER: I remind members that a point of order is not an opportunity to repeat the question. I do ask the Premier to come back to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: In terms of how the health department, through our new agency Hospitals Victoria, will be working with hospitals, it is absolutely clear that with that focus on frontline patient care there is the opportunity to see efficiencies and improvements in those back-of-house functions.

James Newbury: On a further point of order, Speaker, you have twice asked the Premier to come back to the specific question, and the Premier has, with respect, ignored the ruling. I would ask you: what is the point of question time if you have a Premier who refuses to answer questions?

The SPEAKER: Manager of Opposition Business, a point of order is not an opportunity to make a statement. I believe the Premier was coming to answering the question that was asked.

Jacinta ALLAN: Indeed, as the Manager of Opposition Business was very keen to leap to his feet with his confected outrage, I was going to that point exactly around how we have been absolutely clear to hospitals that they should look at improvements to their back-of-house functions. That is a matter for the hospitals. In terms of the positions and those functions within hospitals, that is a matter for those hospital executives. We have been absolutely clear that the record number of patients that are being treated in our hospital system – by more healthcare workers than have ever been in our health system, who are supported by the most funding that has ever been seen before – means that we have a world-class health system in this state. That is a health system –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! It would be good if I could hear the Premier’s responses.

John Pesutto: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, I see that there are around 20 seconds left, and it is clear that the Premier is not going to provide that information here. On relevance, can I invite the Premier to undertake to come back to the house with an answer to the question: is the surgical booking officer caught up in back-office jobs?

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Jacinta ALLAN: We are supporting our hospitals with the care – the record number of patients being seen by a world-class health system. The only people who focus on cuts to our hospital system are those who did them.

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): The government’s delay in approving hospital budgets has already resulted in cuts to so-called back-office jobs like surgical booking clerks. Is it government policy that highly trained nurses take time away from their ward duties to cover surgical bookings?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:28): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question and the opportunity to acknowledge how nurses are absolutely the backbone of our health system. Those nurses are being supported by our government through the recent agreement that was reached that will support them with a 28 per cent pay rise. We will back our nurses every single day.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, this is now an abuse of question time. Every single question is being ignored. It reflects very, very poorly. I would ask you if you would bring the Premier to actually answering the substance of the question.

The SPEAKER: A point of order is not an opportunity to make a statement. Your point of order was, I assume, on relevance. I ask the Premier to come back to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: That is why we back the backbone of our hospital system, our nurses. That is why, also, the additional funding that we are providing to our hospital system – the most funding that has ever been provided to our world-class health system here in Victoria – is firmly focused on patient care and supporting nurses every single day –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, you have directed the Premier to come back to the question again today and the Premier is ignoring your ruling. I would ask you to bring her back to the question that she was asked.

The SPEAKER: As I have referred to previously, I cannot direct the Premier or a minister to answer in a certain form or manner. I believe that the Premier was being relevant in relation to hospital budgets. She has concluded her answer.

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Speaker, when the Premier sat down, she was midsentence. She had not concluded her answer, with all due respect.

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order.