Victoria launches $1.5bn elective surgery ‘catch-up’ blitz
The Victorian government has announced a $1.5bn elective surgery blitz, but the Health Minister can’t say how big the waiting list is.
The Andrews government has announced a $1.5bn health system “catch-up plan”, vowing to exceed pre-pandemic levels of elective surgery by 25 per cent by next year.
The announcement came as Health Minister Martin Foley was unable to quantify Victoria’s current elective surgery waiting list, which is believed to have ballooned well beyond the 80,000 reported in December because of government surgery bans and deferred care attributed to Covid.
Unveiling the new package alongside Mr Foley at Frankston Private Hospital in Melbourne’s outer southeast on Sunday, Acting Premier James Merlino hit out at the Morrison government, saying Victoria had been forced to “go it alone” in boosting health funding.
His comments echo those of premiers and health ministers in other Labor states, who have upped the ante in calling for an increase in federal health funding in recent weeks ahead of the imminent federal election.
“All up, this is a $1.5bn package, and can I just say, a $1.5bn package with zero support from the commonwealth government,” Mr Merlino said. “We are dealing with the impact of Covid on our health system. The approach to date has been that that’s been a partnership, a response from both the state and the commonwealth governments, to support our health system as it combats the impact of Covid.
“This is clearly, unambiguously an issue we are dealing with that is directly impacted by Covid, yet we saw in the federal budget days ago that Covid support is going from $1.5bn in Victoria to zero, so we asked the commonwealth for support for this initiative, and they have refused. Nevertheless, we are going ahead with it.”
Mr Merlino said the package would fund the training of more nurses, to allow operating theatres to be in action over longer periods, including at nights and weekends, with surgery rates set to increase to 125 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by 2023.
“It will mean 40,000 extra surgeries in the next year, building up to record 240,000 surgeries every year in 2024,” he said.
In a Victorian first, Frankston Private Hospital will be transformed into a public surgery centre with the capacity to support up to 9000 public patients a year once fully operational in 2023.
Asked to provide figures on Victoria’s current elective surgery waiting list for the most recent reporting period which ended on Thursday, Mr Foley could not.
“The quarter details are reported in a transparent and public way by the Victorian Health Information Service. When they’ve collated all those results, they’ll release them,” he said.
“Pre-pandemic they were at about the 50,000 level. Last quarter, they were at the 80,000 level. We know that as a result of deferred care, as a result of the pandemic, they’re going to increase. That’s why we’re putting this enormous effort with new models to address that, bring those wait lists down, and do so with a new model that will keep them down.”
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said Victorians could not trust Labor to fix the health crisis they created.
“Two years ago, Daniel Andrews promised $1.3bn to avoid the exact situation we are now in,” she said. “Two years later, Labor still won’t say where that money has gone or how bad our healthcare crisis actually is.”
Mr Merlino said Premier Daniel Andrews would return to work on Monday, having completed seven days in isolation after testing positive for Covid last week.
He plans to return to work despite his wife, Cath, and one of their children having subsequently tested positive.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy is to be released from his own seven-day quarantine period on Tuesday, pending a negative test.
State parliament is due to sit from Tuesday to Thursday.
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