Bev McArthur MP, Member for Western Victoria Region, Media Release, 19 January 2022
Earlier this month, the Victorian Government cancelled elective surgery for tens of thousands of Victorians needing care.
This happened because they have failed to organise the public health system in Victoria. It is now in an aptly named Code Brown, burdened by excessive isolation rules.
The government edict reduced surgeries to ‘urgent procedures’ only, forcing surgeons to pick and choose between patients on their lists.
As at 19th January 2022, there were 253,827 people in Victoria with COVID-19, with 0.066% with the virus needing either ICU (125) or ventilation (42).
Despite this, Member for Western Victoria and Assistant Shadow Minister for Scrutiny of Government, Bev McArthur, said Victorians requiring elective surgery have again been made the ‘punching bag’ for a failing health system.
“These are people who have been waiting for months, some over twelve months, for surgery. Now they’re being asked to wait into the never-never.
“I have constituents who organised their lives around having surgery in January, and now have literally no idea when they will be operated on.
“Hip surgeries, hernias, knee operations, bowel reconstruction – all these things might sound boring to Health Minister Martin Foley.
“But to those waiting on the end of a queue, including young babies – these are real and debilitating issues,” Mrs McArthur said.
There are nearly 70,000 patients on the Victorian waiting list for elective surgeries. Around 2,500 are Category 1, or Urgent, and require surgery within 30 days. Categories 2 and 3 are roughly evenly split for the remaining numbers.
Category 2 patients should be treated within 90 days and Category 3 should be treated within 12 months.
However, Mrs McArthur said the Government is hiding the truth behind the figures.
“The Government’s own website is behind by months and more than a year in some cases.
“For example, the last time the Victorian Agency for Health Information advised what the overdue wait was for Category 1, or Urgent, elective surgery was 31 Dec 2020, over twelve months ago.
“On that date, the average overdue wait time for urgent elective surgery was more than 40 days.
“It means some people are waiting longer than that, possibly more than 70 days for urgent surgery.
“But that figure was more than 12 months ago. What is the overdue wait today? Guided by the website, it’s a guess. A complete unknown.
“That’s unacceptable in what is supposed to be a modern health system.”
The overdue wait for the 32,000 Category 2 patients hasn’t been updated since September 30th 2021. But on that date, the overdue wait was nearly 140 days.
“On this measure, Category 2 patients are waiting at least 230 days for surgery.
“And for the 34,000 Category 3 patients, the overdue wait is 230 days, which means some patients are waiting at least 595 days for surgery.”
On top of this, Victorians who have sacrificed to pay for private health insurance in the belief they would be able access healthcare when needed, have endured the double whammy – paid up but no surgery.
“The stop-start on elective surgeries must end for a service that should be coping if the Government’s promised 4000+ ICU beds are in place.
“The whole point of the 4000 beds was to ensure the hospital system could cope.
“It quite clearly isn’t.
“Now the Health Minister must tell Victorians two things: one, when they will get their surgeries and two, how he intends to play catch up in a system that has fallen dangerously behind.
