14th August 2024 03:21pm
Legislative Council of Victoria, Melbourne
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan):
I will make a very brief contribution, probably pretty much in line with the contribution from Ms Purcell before me. I would like to first of all thank both the government and the opposition for the briefings that they provided on this motion.
I think it is clear that all parties recognise the challenges that confront not simply our ambulance service but the health industry as a whole, whether that be our rapidly growing population, workforce shortages or post-COVID bulges in demand.
At the same time I guess it is also really hard sometimes to get clarity as to the nature of the problem. There is so much noise in the public domain, for want of a better term – some of it valid, some of it overblown. It is very hard I think for many people to get a sense of exactly how the situation is within the service.
I can come at this with a fairly direct and personal focus. About six weeks ago, on a Thursday evening, my wife had a very bad fall at home and she sustained a significant head injury. I will not go into the gruesome details, but let us just say there was a lot of blood.
We live about 10 minutes from the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the wait time for the ambulance was just under 1 hour, at which point in time we were attended by three magnificent ambos, a MICA paramedic and a two-person ambulance crew, who were just superb. They handled the situation with incredible compassion and professionalism.
They then got to drive off on this quiet Thursday evening for a 5½ hours wait ramped at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, which was then followed by 19½ hours in the emergency department trying to get a bed. Based on a random sample of one, I would have to say that clearly the ambulance service is profoundly challenged.
In making those comments, I would like to make it abundantly clear that in terms of both the ambos and the hospital staff they were just totally professional and committed, and I have nothing but admiration for those health professionals.
But if there was any doubt in my mind as to the severity of the situation that confronts us – and like many people in this chamber, I have spoken to a range of ambos and paramedics – clearly the system is broken and there needs to be things done.
I think there is agreement within this chamber that things do need to be done. I am also aware in saying that that there is no magic bullet that will fix the health industry or that will fix the ambulance service, because quite clearly there are major changes in terms of demand – a growing population, our ageing population – that are major constraints on effective service delivery.
That said, when I hear statements from some members here that actually things are getting better, I do find that a little challenging to accept. I am also aware that there is a lot happening between the government, health providers, the ambulance union and other key stakeholders. Those are important changes, and we wish the government and those stakeholders every success in trying to address them.
I think Ms Purcell raised this before. The reality is this inquiry is not going to hit the deck for the best part of a year. I think it would be a wonderful thing if, when we come to that point, it is all fixed, but I do not think it will be. So we would suggest that given that timeframe, this is a good motion to support.
It is a good thing to put a flag in the ground. We would also say, given the timeframe, there is absolutely no reason why the prospect of this inquiry should in any way interfere with important things like the enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations with the union and other systemic reforms that the government is seeking to implement. On this basis Legalise Cannabis will be supporting the motion, and we commend it to the chamber.
[ENDS]
