Tuesday, 2 August 2022

Health system

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:08): My question is again to the Minister for Health. Yesterday, Monday evening, at the Royal Children’s Hospital they could not manage patient demand, with families forced to wait outside in the rain for up to 9 hours. Some of the children waiting to be seen were as young as nine months old. What immediate action has the minister taken to ensure that kids will not continue to wait outside, particularly in the rain, and that kids who present at the children’s hospital will be seen immediately?

Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:09): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. During the winter break I had the opportunity to visit many of our healthcare services, and it was fantastic to go and see the children’s hospital in action and to understand the way in which they care for the children who present on any given day. What was great to see was how they have their own triaging system in emergency to make sure that they can turn around children as quickly as possible who might present with little cuts and bruises and so on. That was great to see.

But of course when we are talking about children that really need that urgent care, these are decisions—active decisions—that are made by our hardworking healthcare workers. They are being triaged by paramedics, they are being triaged by clinicians—at every step of the way the children that present to the Royal Children’s Hospital are being cared for. Now, I want to make the point that I absolutely understand the discomfort that may be experienced and, once again, how stressful it can be as a parent, because in that situation what you want is for your child to be seen first and foremost. But that is why we have clinicians in place, and their job is to assess every child on their acuity and to deliver care according to that. This is a responsibility that our health services take very, very seriously, and certainly as health minister it is something that I take very seriously.

Ms Staley: On a point of order, Speaker, the question asked what immediate action the minister had taken in relation to the specific instance that was raised, so on relevance I ask you to get her to answer the question.

The SPEAKER: The question related to potential demand for children waiting, and I think the minister is being relevant to the question that was asked.

Ms THOMAS: Thank you, Speaker. I thank the member for their question. I make this point: the caseload at a hospital like the children’s varies hour to hour, day to day. Of course it is being impacted right now by the number of staff who are furloughed because they have COVID, and that is before we take account of all of those healthcare workers who are also not able to be at work today because of other planned or unplanned leave. I want to take this opportunity to thank them and to thank all of the workers at the children’s hospital who work so hard every day—extra shifts, whatever it takes—to deliver the care that the children of Victoria deserve.

Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:12): It is the second time this circumstance has occurred at the Royal Children’s with children and their parents waiting outside to be seen because of mismanagement by the government—the second time in just two weeks. One of the doctors present told patients last night the situation was the worst he had seen in 20 years. Can the minister provide a guarantee to parents across Victoria that a situation like this, with children unable to be seen at an emergency department, will not happen again?

Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:13): Thank you very much for that question. I will make the point, and I am happy to make it: this is the most challenging circumstance our public health system has found itself in, just like public health systems everywhere in Australia and all around the world. This is a one-in-100-year event. The global pandemic continues. Those on the other side seem to have chosen to neglect that, but we have not. We are acutely aware of the impact. Right now there are more than 800 people in hospital with COVID. There are, as I said, all the staff that are furloughed. Our system is under enormous pressure, but through all of that pressure our government will continue to support our hardworking healthcare workers. We will stand by them, and we will support them.