Every Australian, whether in the public or private system has the right to the highest quality and most appropriate and safe clinical care available.
Serious concerns have been raised by women about the care they received by a former gynaecologist, Simon Gordon. These matters are currently the subject of multiple investigations.
In response, the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments are working together to provide targeted supports for affected patients to access appropriate care and services.
The Albanese Labor Government's $7.45 million package includes funding Victorian Primary Health Networks to establish Care Navigators.
Care Navigators will deliver individualised care coordination, acting as a central point of contact to help women navigate follow up care, specialist reviews, and other health care supports through a network of local GPs.
The Commonwealth is also taking action to prevent similar failures from occurring in the future - starting with strengthening the general practice and gynaecology workforces, through the RACGP and RANZCOG - ensuring higher standards of care are upheld across the health system.
In Victoria, the Allan Labor Government is investing $2 million to deliver complementary additional tertiary specialist endometriosis support services to the women at five health services.
This support is in line with feedback and requests from Simon Gordon's patients.
The Women's Health Clinics at Barwon Health, Monash Health, Eastern Health, Western Health and the Royal Women's Hospital will offer specialist reviews with a gynaecologist.
This service will be supported with a triage nurse to help these patients access and collate all relevant medical records and patient history and offer support reading scans and test results.
Some services will also offer additional allied health, imaging and psychology support.
Referrals for appointments will be accessible from mid-April via the Women's Health Victoria endometriosis concerns line, set up by the Victorian Government as a dedicated and trusted source for information.
Through both these complementary Victorian and Commonwealth services, it is creating a no-wrong-door approach to accessing care. Whether women reach out through the phone line or directly to care navigators, women will be supported to access to care tailored to their needs.
These services follow announcements by the Victorian Government in February with actions that include:
- establishing a dedicated support phone line, delivered by Women's Health Victoria
- having Safer Care Victoria sit on the Epworth Private Hospital's independent review panel
- referring these allegations to Victoria Police
- developing best practice points for the diagnosis of endometriosis
- delivering additional training to help doctors recognise endometriosis and treat it appropriately.
The Women's Health Victoria endometriosis concerns line can be contacted on 03 9664 9330.
For anyone requiring urgent medical care, you can contact the Virtual Emergency Department, Nurse-On-Call, visit one of Victoria's Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, or in an emergency, dial 000.
