Fake patients ‘OK’: Opposition frontbencher digs in on media event controversy

State Liberal Party frontbencher Richard Riordan has doubled down on his defence of Colac Area Health over allegations its staff posed as patients for a government media event, widening a split with Opposition Leader John Pesutto who branded the situation a scandal that warranted an independent inquiry.

Riordan told ABC radio on Friday that the use of fake patients for an event Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas attended in August was “OK” if they helped demonstrate pressure on the system. The allegations, which were first reported by the Colac Herald, are now the subject of a Health Department investigation.

Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas (second from left) with staff at the Colac Area Health clinic on August 9.Credit: Twitter

“They’ve demonstrated to the minister the capacity constraints, what do you want the minister to schlep all the way to Colac? … They’re trying to explain to them,” said Riordan, who is the MP for Polwarth and opposition spokesman on housing and emergency services.

“If the minister thinks there’s a problem here, she has known since August and since August, she has actively worked with, promoted and encouraged the management of Colac Area Health.”

When the allegations were first revealed on Thursday, Opposition Leader John Pesutto called the use of fake patients a scandal and called for a “truly independent inquiry”.

Asked about these comments, Riordan said: “The fight is not with me and my leader, the fight is with the government providing the resources to regional health.”

Liberal frontbencher Richard Riordan.

“If I’m going to waste the resources on an inquiry, I want an inquiry into why so many publicly funded aged care beds in our rural health services are sitting empty because they’re not being funded properly.”

“[Victorians] don’t want to know whether for half an hour, a couple of family friends and a couple of staff members help demonstrate to the minister how cramped an important regional health service is.”

Riordan, whose wife works for the health service, denied his personal relationships played any role in his position. He said he was informed by intimate knowledge of the health service, including being on the hospital board for 16 years.

Speaking on Friday, Thomas said Pesutto should answer whether he had spoken to Riordan about the issue.

“Under my watch I assure you I take these allegations very seriously,” she said.

On Friday, the government also released quarterly health data showing significant demand, performance below benchmarks but signs of improvement on previous quarters.

Ambulance response times have become faster, with 67.3 per cent of code-one cases being responded to within 15 minutes, up from 60.2 per cent from the year before. However, this response time is well behind the target of 85 per cent.

Victoria’s ramping crisis has also eased slightly. More than 67 per cent of patients were transferred from ambulance stretchers and into hospitals within 40 minutes, up from about 60 per cent a year earlier.

And the state’s elective or planned surgery waitlist, which had blown out during the pandemic, was whittled down by a few hundred patients in the last months of 2023, to 67,207 patients.

Thomas said Ambulance Victoria had recorded its second-busiest quarter on record in the last three months of 2023. Over that time, there were 54,267 emergency cases

“Yet at the same time, we’ve seen significant improvement in response times,” she said. “We think that the impact of deferred care through the pandemic is still having an impact.

“My focus at the moment is across each and every one of these data sets. I really want to see some improvement in ambulance response times, but I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Ambulance Victoria and our hard-working paramedics on the work that they’ve done to show some really significant uplift.”

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