Tuesday, 21 June 2022

Health services

Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (19:32): (2000) My matter for the adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Minister for Health. This relates to correspondence I have received from Mr George Zoraya in Endeavour Hills. That our health system is in absolute crisis is shown very clearly by this case. He has had issues with getting his mother in for dental care. He had given that up as a lost cause, but he tried to get his father in for dental care in 2017. He received correspondence from the department in late April this year—2022—five years later, with an appointment. He had in the interim actually had private work undertaken—$1500 worth of private work. But what distresses George is that his father had died in the interim. His father died last year, in 2021.

Our health system, our dental services, Monash dental service to be clear, is in such crisis that a man who was booked in in 2017 did not get an appointment until 2022. Sadly, he had died in the interim. That is how severe our system now is. That is how incompetent the running of our system is under Daniel Andrews and the health minister, Mr Foley. They have no excuse in my view for taking five years to get basic dental service. George goes on. Just to be clear, this was way before COVID of course, so do not try that on, he says—five years to be eligible. He goes on further, and he says:

How can one Live Properly without Nutrition?

Isn’t the ability to ‘chew food’ a Non-Negotiable, to have Teeth? For anyone, let alone a Pensioner who has worked the greater majority of his working life in Australia … and Paid Taxes for what?

My great discovery today …

He talks about the priority access arrangements at Monash Health. Well, the truth is his father did not get priority access. His father would have had to wait five years for dental treatment, and as he says, the ability to chew food is a non-negotiable aspect here. He goes on to talk about the fact that there is huge spending on big projects and yet not enough to make sure people can chew food properly. He is very critical of the current government, and he has provided me with all of the details and his correspondence with the Monash service. So I say to the health minister that it is completely unacceptable. The system is in crisis. You need to fix it. You need to fix the dental service.