Minister for Health, Harriet Shing, has effectively conceded the Allan Labor Government is out of ideas to tackle the state's ballooning elective surgery lists and broader health crisis.
Under questioning today by the Victorian Parliament's Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) Minister Shing failed to answer basic questions, including:
- Why Victoria's elective surgery waitlist has ballooned to more than 68,000 patients - an increase of more than 4,000 in just three months.
- How many patients waiting for vital surgery are children.
- How many Victorians have died while waiting for surgery.
- Why graduate nurses and paramedics can't get a job at a time when the system is under huge pressure.
- Whether Ambulance Victoria has the resources it needs to fill daily rosters.
Further, Ambulance Victoria CEO Jordan Emery made the extraordinary admission that Flexible Work Arrangements are challenging and had a major impact on the ability to fill shifts, directly affecting the availability of ambulances.
Shadow Minister for Health, Georgie Crozier said, "It's disappointing that Labor continues their spin, deflection and weasel words as patients can't get the care they desperately need.
"If the Minister can't be upfront in this committee about the true state of Victoria's health system, then why would any Victorian believe her?
"Victorians are paying the price for Labor's mismanagement of the health system. Only a Liberal and Nationals Government will fix the broken health system and deliver the world class health care Victorians deserve and need."
