Health crisis must end
YOU can’t fix a problem if you don’t know how bad the situation is.
This is why regional Victorians deserve straight answers from the State Labor Government on Victoria’s health-care crisis.
Before COVID, there were record numbers of Victorians waiting for vital surgery and now there are record numbers waiting to see a specialist.
We are hearing that surgery wait lists have blown out to more than 100,000 but we don’t know because Labor is refusing to tell Victorians the true numbers or where they are on the wait list.
Coming into the pandemic, our state had the worst-funded, lowest-staffed and poorest-performing emergency departments of any state in the nation.
Two years on, state Labor’s neglect continues to dismantle good health care in Victoria.
Front-line call takers have been cut from 000 as Victorians in emergency situations are left waiting on hold.
Ambulance Victoria is regularly plunged into code red and suffers from severe under-staffing.
Maternity health services have been cut with closures to birthing wards at regional hospitals, leaving mothers worried they will be giving birth by the side of the road.
Labor’s health-care crisis was not caused by COVID but years of mismanagement, waste and a failure to invest.
Only a change in government in November will deliver proactive action on Victoria’s health crisis with a plan to work with the public and private sector to halve surgery waitlists within four years.
Peter Walsh,
Member for Murray Plains,
Leader of The Nationals
