Wednesday, 28 August 2024

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:07): (1090) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Health, and it is in relation to Anam Cara House in Geelong. It is a place that I have spoken about in this place previously. It is a tremendous facility. As we all know, the pressure on the public health system continues in Geelong especially. We have had some significant issues around ambulance ramping, which occurs on a regular basis, and at times there are just no ambulances available for that community. As I said, I have spoken about Anam Cara as a magnificent palliative care facility that serves the Geelong community very well. On 17 August the Geelong Advertiser, however, reported that Anam Cara House had offered solutions to assist Barwon Health by opening beds for public patients. Often these palliative care patients are ending up in the Barwon Health emergency department and cannot be cared for and assisted properly.

Anam Cara Geelong has the capacity to admit Barwon Health patients diagnosed with a life-limiting illness to ease the load – if it is funded to do so. And that is the problem here. The first solution is to refer Barwon Health patients diagnosed with a life-limiting illness with private health insurance to Anam Cara Geelong. The second solution is for just $2 million of Barwon Health’s funding to be reallocated to Anam Cara, which will enable four public beds to be open 24/7, including weekend admissions, for a year. Anam Cara chair Diana Taylor told the Geelong Advertiser:

We have the space and capacity to do more and we want to support Barwon Health and our community.

The Allan Labor government has continued to reject Anam Cara Geelong’s submission for $2 million per year to open up these public beds for patients with a life-limiting illness. Anyone who knows someone or has had someone dear to them who is in palliative care understands the enormous support that these facilities provide – and those doctors and nurses that provide the care. It is critical at this time that they be supported. What this $2 million will do is support those patients very ably. It will provide access to exemplary palliative care and support their families in a state-of-the-art facility with 24/7 medical coverage.

The action I seek, therefore, is for the government to reconsider the offer presented by Anam Cara House for this funding so that they can open up access to much-needed beds and in doing so ease the immense pressure on the public system in Geelong and the surrounding areas. As a result, the ambulance ramping for these patients that are going to Barwon Health because there is nowhere else to go to get pain relief or palliative care will also be eased. I urge the government to reconsider this and provide the $2 million to open up those four beds in Anam Cara House immediately.