Dear Editor,
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 healthcare 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 waitlists 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 waitlist.
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 healthcare in Victoria.
Frontline call takers have been cut from triple-zero 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 healthcare 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,
Leader of the Nationals.
