Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Bills

Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Health Services Performance Transparency and Accountability) Bill 2023

Statement of compatibility

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (10:03): I lay on the table a statement of compatibility with the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006:

The Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Health Services Performance Transparency and Accountability) Bill 2023 (the Bill) seeks to ensure timely publication of health services performance data and ambulance response time data by the Secretary of the Department of Health and the Chief Executive Officer of Ambulance Victoria, respectively.

It does not infringe upon any rights outlined in the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) as the Bill is merely obligating the publication of specified data that is already published. Data is deidentified when published and is published in aggregate form, thereby making it impossible to identify individual patients and their personal health information. The Bill does not breach the privacy of individual patients.

It is my view the Bill is compatible with the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic).

Georgie Crozier MP

Second reading

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (10:03): I move:

That the bill be now read a second time.

The bill seeks to amend the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (Vic) to establish that quarterly health services performance data and ambulance response time data be published on the fourth Tuesday of the month following the previous quarter.

Victoria’s public health services performance data is currently collated and published on a quarterly basis. This includes data related to the quality and safety performance of ambulance services, public dental care, elective surgery, emergency department care, hospital admission and discharge, mental health services, specialist clinics, and patient experience at public health services.

However, in recent years, there has been a lack of a consistent or predictable release date for this vital information. Without a legislated requirement for public release on a specified date, it is invariably released at a time that is politically convenient for the government.

According to the Victorian Agency for Health Information (VAHI) website, the latest data for the quarter ending 31 December 2022 had actually been extracted on 16 January 2023. However, it was not made available until 10:45 am on Friday 10 February 2023 – more than three weeks following the release of that data. This was immediately after a parliamentary sitting week and just 15 minutes prior to the Minister for Health fronting a media conference, which clearly demonstrates the politically motivated timing of the release of this important data.

The bill will obligate the Secretary of the Department of Health to publish the health services performance data currently published by VAHI on its website and will also obligate the chief executive officer of Ambulance Victoria to publish the ambulance response time data that is currently published on the AV website.

The data published in each quarter after the commencement of the bill will be required to remain on the VAHI website and AV website and not be deleted, except where corrections are made to the data. This is because health services and AV do update the data as errors are identified and where additional data becomes available.

The published data must be in an accessible format that allows for data to be easily accessed digitally and allows for the data to be exported and/or downloaded.

We will never fix the systemic problems in the health system if the government cannot even be honest and transparent about them.

This bill seeks to ensure that the health services performance data is made available to the public at the end of the first month following the previous quarter in order to improve transparency and confidence in government reporting.

I need to commend the bill to the house, but I want to make some points in relation to this second-reading speech. Victoria’s elective surgery waitlist was at record levels prior to COVID. With subsequent lockdowns, code browns and the suspension of elective surgery and procedures in recent years, we saw the waitlist blow out.

As those elective surgery waitlists and dental waitlists have grown to unacceptably high levels, ambulance response times have also had a great impact on Victorians.

Having data on elective surgery waitlist numbers, time to receive care, and response times for our ambulance system gives a snapshot of how effectively our health system is working.

Victorian patients, clinicians, and administrators need to understand the full extent of the data, and that is why this bill is incredibly important. We need to have that released in a consistent manner.

I commend the bill to the house.

Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:07): I move:

That debate on this bill be adjourned for two weeks.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned for two weeks.