OPINION – Regional Victoria’s health services need an injection of funding to urgently get more feet on the ground to fix our state’s healthcare crisis that’s seeing sick people getting sicker.
Long waits for elective surgery have exacerbated minor pain to chronic levels, while under-resourcing of the emergency triple-0 service has led to the preventable deaths of 12 Victorians – so far.
In recent weeks, in many centres, including Swan Hill, Mildura and Echuca, locals have made it crystal clear they see more workers in our hospitals and medical clinics as fundamental to the wellbeing of their communities.
Shutdowns through the pandemic mean the number of Victorians waiting for surgery, and waiting in pain, has skyrocketed to an estimated 100,000 people.
Vulnerable people at crisis point are waiting more than 60 days for mental health appointments, while delays in access to drug and alcohol rehab has blown out even longer.
In regional communities such as Swan Hill, the tyranny of distance also means people must travel hours for specialist appointments and treatments that they can’t access locally.
The sad truth is, elective surgery waitlists were already out of control before the pandemic because the Andrews Labor Government didn’t do enough to plan for future needs of Victoria’s health workforce.
We need a positive plan to bring more staff into the health workforce as Victoria recovers and rebuilds – it’s the only way we’ll fix the healthcare crisis.
The Nationals in government will maximise the capacity of our public hospitals, and use private practitioners and hospitals if necessary to assist with getting more surgeries completed, more quickly.
Our proposed changes to the Mental Health Act – blocked by Labor and Independent MPs – will also unlock an extra 2000 mental health practitioners to support kids in schools.
Labor has been in government 19 of the past 23 years so there’s no excuse for the government not to be able to have the resources in place to support regional communities.Peter Walsh is the Victorian Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains
