Wednesday, 31 May 2023

Health system

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:13): (270) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Health, and it is in relation to urgent wait times for elective surgical procedures. As I have said many times, we know that Victoria’s health system is under enormous stress and it remains in crisis. The latest data from the Victorian Agency for Health Information shows that almost one in four patients are not being treated within the clinically recommended time. The outcomes for too many Victorian patients are getting worse. They are getting sicker while they are waiting. Their quality of life is deteriorating and placing further pressure on an already overstretched health system. These tens of thousands of people are not just numbers; they are people. They are people who have got a multitude of issues that they are managing. It is incredibly frustrating for them and a huge concern for so many of these Victorians.

It includes Victorians like Ingrid, who contacted me in sheer frustration and worry with her story. She contacted me yesterday, telling me about how in February she had been referred by her local doctor for a colonoscopy, which was classified as urgent in a letter she received on 20 February, which stated that she would be contacted. Well, three months later, concerned by further symptoms, she contacted Monash Health and was told that she could not even schedule a date for this urgent procedure because gastroenterology services were so busy. In her email she said the nurse said:

Oh I’m sorry, gastroenterology is very busy so the wait can take some time.

Ingrid said:

I’ve been on the list since February 20th.

The nurse in the clinic she was ringing said:

It might be a while longer. Can you pay? Can you go Private?

Ingrid responded no. The nurse then said:

I can’t give you a date, but it will be a while away.

Patients like Ingrid are left in limbo. She is understandably very worried about these further symptoms that she has got, and she is worried because the wait is extending. The longer she waits, the more advanced her undiagnosed condition could become, and that could result in a very catastrophic outcome. So the action I am seeking is for the minister to provide exactly the number of Victorians who are in the public system who have been contacted and who have been referred on but have then been told by the health service, ‘We can’t fit you in, because we don’t have the capacity, so go private.’ I think this is an important number that we need to know to understand exactly the true extent of the health crisis, and it is that action I would ask the minister to act upon.