Matthew Guy is best placed to fix healthcare system, RedBridge poll has found

A new poll reveals that Liberal leader Matthew Guy’s focus on this key election issue may offer him his best hope of winning.

Matthew Guy has been backed as the man to fix Victoria’s health crisis, according to an exclusive new statewide poll.

The broken health system has dominated the election campaign, with more than $12bn in commitments made between Labor and the Coalition.

But the new RedBridge poll has found more than half of the 1189 voters surveyed believe Mr Guy is best placed to fix the system.

While 54.7 per cent backed Mr Guy, it is estimated that number would surge to a whopping 69 per cent once the undecided vote was redistributed.

By contrast, less then a quarter of voters, or 24 per cent, said they believed Daniel Andrews was the man to fix the system.

His share of the 21.3 per cent of undecided votes would boost that number slightly to 31 per cent.

Matthew Guy has been backed as the man to fix Victoria’s health crisis. Picture: Sarah Matray

Critically for the Coalition, which traditionally struggles to attract the young vote, people aged 18-39 were most convinced Mr Guy was best placed to repair the system.

The poll also found 64.9 per cent of voters supported shelving funding for the Suburban Rail Loop, including more than half of those polled in Melbourne’s southeast which will be most impacted.

Three quarters of those polled also backed the promise of a second Royal Children’s Hospital, including majority support across voters in the east.

The poll is expected to buoy Coalition officials who have come under internal pressure for letting the health system dominate their campaign narrative.

Critics believed that despite the unprecedented health crisis, the Coalition would be unable to convince voters it could be trusted on the traditionally Labor “owned” issue.

In turn he has come under attack by Labor and faced stiff public opposition and criticism from key health unions over the Liberal Party’s track record on heath issues.

Despite that, since returning to the Liberal leadership in September last year Mr Guy has continued to criticise the government’s management of the health system.

Melbourne’s western suburbs would get a new $900m Royal Children’s Hospital campus in Werribee under the Liberals. Picture: Wayne Taylor

“For the sake of having a functional health system, we must win this election,” he said at his campaign launch on Sunday.

“Our priority is unashamedly fixing the health crisis first, second, and third.

“That’s why we’ve taken the difficult decision to shelve the Cheltenham to Box Hill rail line, and redirect every available cent into health.”

Mr Guy has vowed to scrap the Andrews Government’s multi-billion dollar Suburban Rail Loop project and divert all available state funds into the health system.

He has promised to build or upgrade more than 20 hospitals, train or recruit an additional 40,000 nurses and midwives, and slash surgery waiting lists.

It includes a $2.4bn upgrade to the Alfred Hospital and a new $900m Royal Children’s Hospital campus for Melbourne’s west.

He has also promised to fix the embattled triple-0 system which has been linked to the deaths of at least 33 Victorians.

In total the Coalition has pledged at least $7.4bn in health funding announcements, and it says it will be able to deliver that using only money from the Suburban Rail Loop project.

Labor has added another $4.4bn in election health commitments.

It includes $1bn to redevelop Maroondah Hospital.

Guy alongside rival Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

The ALP has also promised a $1bn upgrade of the Austin Hospital, a new hospital for West Gippsland and a redeveloped Monash Medical Centre.

While Daniel Andrews has blamed the Covid pandemic on the state’s ongoing health issues, critics say he has failed to properly manage the system during his eight years in office.

Ahead of his first term in government in 2014, Mr Andrews made repairing the health system a major plank of his campaign.

Despite reaching record performance levels before Covid, ambulance response times are worse than they were before Labor came to power.

Surgery waiting list times for urgent category one procedures are rising and ambulance ramping is a critical issue.

A damning review into triple-0 has also revealed 33 Victorians had died after call-taking and ambulance delays.

The review, by the Inspector-General for Emergency Management (IGEM), detailed the devastating impact of the pandemic, record call numbers and “longstanding” funding issues.

Of the thousands of delays, the review identified 40 emergencies between December 2020 and May 2022 where people potentially died or were harmed because of call delays or, in three cases, ambulance resourcing or dispatch issues.

Originally published as Matthew Guy is best placed to fix healthcare system, RedBridge poll has found