Tuesday, 20 June 2023

Elective surgery

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (21:15): (293) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Health, and it relates again to the dire situation that too many Victorians find themselves in. I had an email from Travis’s boss Lee, who was very concerned about his employee. Travis works in his warehouse and has to lift various boxes and undertake the work that he needs to do to provide for his family. His boss Lee said that, you know, he has been on the waiting list since 2019 to have his abdominal hernia repaired and nothing has happened.

David Davis: Cruel.

Georgie CROZIER: It is totally cruel, Mr Davis. He was getting more and more concerned because the pain was increasing. This poor man was obviously very concerned about the state of the hernia, and he was looking at having to draw down on his superannuation to go private and get this very simple operation undertaken. So when I did speak to Travis, Travis filled me in on the details, and what really alarmed me was the fact that he had been on the waiting list since 2019 at Monash. In 2021 –

David Davis: Four years for a hernia.

Georgie CROZIER: four years – he was taken in to get an ultrasound, he waited there, then they were too busy because of COVID and he was sent home again. He was in excruciating abdominal pain. And then in 2021 the doctor made contact again and said, ‘Look, he needs this to be done.’ This year, two years later, on 31 March 2023 he received a text message from Monash Health and a follow-up letter. And the text message said:

We understand you are currently waiting for a General Surgery consultation at Monash Health.

While waiting, your circumstances may have changed, you may have been able to access your specialist care elsewhere or you may no longer require an appointment.

If you still wish to remain on the General Surgery waiting list, please contact your doctor for an updated referral to be sent to Monash Health prior to 12/05/23.

That is all very well that the hospital is trying to understand where these people are. We know thousands are taken off the elective surgery waitlist every month – some die, some go interstate to get their surgery. And people like Travis are absolutely astounded that the only correspondence they get is about whether they want to come off the elective surgery waitlist, not ‘How are you going? Are you being seen to, or do you need to be seen in a clinic and we’ll get your surgery done?’

The action I am seeking from the minister is for her to provide an account of how many Victorians who have been taken off the elective surgery waitlist from the Monash have gone private – because they go through a survey, Monash know from these patients that they contact how many have come off – and how many people have gone interstate to get their surgery because they cannot be seen and have it undertaken in Victoria.