Wednesday, 21 September 2022

Safer Care Victoria

Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (20:29): (2144) Before I go to my adjournment matter, can I also acknowledge the speeches that have been made this evening regarding the motion on the Clerk, Mr Andrew Young. Can I also put on record my appreciation for all your support, guidance and professionalism that I have been privileged to have throughout the time I have been here. I wish you all the best in the next chapter of your life. You will be greatly missed in this place.

To all those members who are outgoing: we did hear some magnificent speeches tonight. I want to bring into my adjournment matter, which is for the Minister for Health, that I think it was Mr Atkinson who spoke about the need for debate and why we are in here—to raise issues and to put forward solutions but also to highlight those concerns of our constituents. What we have seen in today’s paper about seven children who have died in emergency departments across Victoria is truly shocking. I am very, very concerned about the state of our health system, as many of you know. I have put into this house for many, many months now the concerns of what is happening around the state when it comes to Victorians’ health concerns and how they are being treated and managed and, quite frankly, the tragedy that is unfolding with so many that have lost their lives through the failures of 000, not being able to get a bed, not being able to get their surgery or, as we read today, those seven children who died.

Safer Care Victoria, which is the watchdog in the Department of Health on these matters, has refused to disclose how many paediatric sentinel event reports have actually been undertaken this year. I do not think that is good enough. I think that is shameful. If we do not understand what is going on, how on earth can we fix it? This government has a history of cover-up. It has a history of blaming others, obfuscation, deflection—you name it. It is everybody else’s fault but theirs. But this is a truly appalling situation, where children are dying in emergency departments and there are fears by senior clinicians that something is wrong. When those senior clinicians are speaking out, saying, ‘Don’t disband that committee, Government. We need to have some oversight; we need to be there to be putting our views forward so that we don’t have these tragedies’, then I think it is truly appalling that the government ignores those pleas from those senior paediatric clinicians. I cannot do much about the minister and I cannot do much about the Premier—Victorians will decide that—but the action I seek tonight, and I will have this before the election, is that the government provide how many paediatric sentinel event reports have happened this year.