Thursday, 20 June 2024

Western Victoria Region

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:49): (958) My constituency question for the Minister for Health concerns the impending mergers of regional health authorities in my electorate, forced upon the state by Labor’s inability to manage money and affecting regional Victorians most severely. Last week’s report of a health department meeting with regional hospitals was alarming: 25 have been told their budgets will be slashed by up to 30 per cent. I have previously raised my concern about non-disclosure agreements forced on regional health board members and also about local health service charity and campaign community fundraising being swallowed up. My question today is more fundamental. Merging into one superstructure might provide cheaper services like operations by individual unit cost if they are all performed centrally, but Minister, how can you guarantee that bean-counting bureaucrats will properly assign a dollar value to the incalculable benefit for patients and their families of having services provided in local hospitals?