Tuesday, 20 September 2022

Health services

Dr CUMMING (Western Metropolitan) (10:35): The Independence Party understands there is a dramatic shortage of doctors and frontline workers in Victoria. While the number of clinics bulk-billing is dwindling around the state, residents cannot even get an appointment to see a doctor or are afraid that an ambulance will not turn up. Clinics are not taking new patients. Appointments are not available for weeks ahead. Residents are having to travel long distances to see a doctor or even drive themselves to the hospital. One mother travelled for more than an hour in my area to see a doctor, and every time her son gets sick at child care she has to take days off to look for doctor appointments.

For over 20 years residents have been calling for new hospitals across Victoria. They get promised one, but there is never any funding allocated to it, and now they cannot even see a local doctor. We need our frontline workers. We need to end all the COVID mandates and restrictions. We need to allow our doctors the right to actually practise where they want to and how they need to and be able to speak to their patients without feeling that the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency or someone else is going to deregister them or some authorised officer might turn up.