Tuesday, 2 August 2022

Ambulance services

Ms KEALY (Lowan) (14:16): My question is to the Minister for Ambulance Services. In round 1 of the Horsham district football league Kaniva Leeor football player Matt Tink suffered a fractured and dislocated hip. Matt was in intense pain. No pain relief was available on the ground, and it was clear urgent medical intervention was required. Despite Matt’s critical situation the first two calls to overworked 000 staff were dismissed as non-life-threatening and ‘just a football injury’, and twice urgent calls for an ambulance to be dispatched were rejected. It was not until a former lead nurse from Kaniva hospital called 000 some time after the first call that an ambulance was finally dispatched—the third call to 000. Why are country ambulance resources so scarce that it takes three calls to 000 to get an ambulance dispatched in country Victoria?

Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:17): I thank the member for Lowan for her question. I will make a couple of points just to kind of provide some clarity for the member. ESTA takes the call, and then it is handed to Ambulance Victoria, who will triage the situation and will distribute resources as needed on any given day based on the acuity of the calls that are coming in. These are decisions that are made by qualified clinicians, and they are best placed to make these decisions.

Once again can I acknowledge the discomfort that has been experienced by the person that you have referenced. I want to acknowledge that, but once again, under our government we have invested in our paramedics. Back in 2014 we made a commitment to the people of Victoria that we would end the war on our paramedics. We have subsequently recruited more than 2200 paramedics, and only last week I was out with the Premier welcoming the latest bunch of recruits, 157 of whom will be placed in rural and regional Victoria.

Our ambulance services, just like our healthcare services, are impacted by COVID. So once again, on any given day there are paramedics who are unable to come to work. The call takers in ESTA, our paramedics at secondary triage, the paramedics working now in the virtual ED and the paramedics out on the road are doing a fantastic job. They are working as hard as they can to deliver the emergency life-saving services that Victorians need. But tough decisions have to be made every single day, and they will be based on the acuity of the incident. I want to make the point that our government have continued to invest through the pandemic to ensure that we are giving Ambulance Victoria the resources it needs to deliver the very best care that it can. Of course if the member for Lowan wants to share details with me of the person concerned to enable my department to make contact with that person and seek their permission to find out more details, I am happy for her to do so.

Ms KEALY (Lowan) (14:20): It is now 16 weeks after his injury, yet Matt still does not have feeling or movement in his right foot and does not know if he ever will. Matt will never play football again, and his ability to return to full work capacity is doubtful because of the extended time his nerve was compressed while waiting for 000 to agree to send an urgently required ambulance. Can the minister explain to Matt and other local footballers across the state why scarce resources have led to serious injuries now being assessed as not urgent and not requiring an ambulance if the injury occurs on a football ground?

Ms THOMAS (Macedon—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:21): I thank the member for Lowan, and I make this point: I am certainly not aware, and I suspect that it is not the case at all, that any such decision is made. That is simply nonsensical. An injury is an injury, and it is assessed by a qualified clinician, who will dispatch the appropriate care at the appropriate time. I am not a clinician nor do I believe is the member for Lowan, so she has got a lot of assumptions in the question that she asked. But as I said, I extend that offer. If she wants to provide me with the details, I am happy to ask Ambulance Victoria to find out exactly what happened and to talk with Matt and to work with him.