Wednesday, 11 May 2022

 Mr BARTON (Eastern Metropolitan) (17:53): (1911) My adjournment tonight is for Minister Carroll. VicRoads is insisting that individuals who suffer from mild epilepsy make a special trip to their specialist to provide a medical report to keep their licence. This has posed a challenge, as many of those who suffer from epilepsy have only an annual appointment with their specialist. In the case of a friend of mine their specialist requires bookings six months ahead of time and only if they suffer a seizure. Further, there is a significant cost in this process to visit the specialist, which in some cases sees people having to pay hundreds of dollars to get this medical report. My friend has been seizure free for well over two years now, so conducting a review at this stage does not make much sense. The medical advice from his specialist remains the same.

VicRoads have a default setting whereby unless the specialist provides the report by an arbitrarily set date the licence is automatically cancelled. In effect VicRoads only allows six weeks for a person to obtain an appointment with their specialist. VicRoads refuses outright to provide any extensions of time. Given the pressure on the GPs and specialists because of the pandemic, there is no justification for VicRoads insisting on such an inflexible time frame. Should it not be a specialist practitioner specifying the period in which the review is required?

It is my understanding that these medical reports are not reviewed at VicRoads by a suitable qualified medical practitioner; rather it is a bureaucrat who may have worked in a health-related field. VicRoads expect these incredibly busy specialists to fill in a very lengthy and cumbersome online form. In my view government bureaucrats without a health background should not be telling our most senior, experienced and learned specialists how they should prepare and provide medical reports.

When it comes to this process VicRoads is found wanting. At a time of acute pressure on all medical services these bureaucrats are forcing people to rush and undertake expensive and unnecessary specialist consultations in order to meet arbitrary, confected deadlines that have no medical relevance. So the action I seek is: will the minister conduct a review of the VicRoads fitness-to-drive process with a view to removing any unnecessary bureaucratic red tape?