Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am passionate about many things in life, but inequity and injustice are right at the top of my list. In my role as representative of Mallee I am committed to the right of all people to access quality health care, regardless of their postcode. I will not be silent on this issue until the people of Mallee can access the health care they need and to which they have a right, and until health facilities in Mallee reflect the dignity that belongs to its people. Until the needed quota of health care professionals is sustainably established in Mallee, I will not be silent. At this present moment in Mallee there is a shortage of hundreds of GPs, specialists and allied and primary health professionals. In addition, Mallee health care professionals are working in some of the worst facilities that I have visited.

I want to talk today specifically about the Swan Hill Hospital. I visited Swan Hill Hospital recently and was given a tour by the CEO, Peter Abraham, and Rosanne Kava, the president of the board of Swan Hill District Health. They took me through the entire hospital, including the emergency department. Please imagine with me a 1960s facility that services patients beyond its capacity, in cramped quarters, where there is little privacy, where staff computers scarcely fit on a side bench, where patients sometimes must receive results in the waiting room because there is a lack of cubicle space, and where the staff eating area is a walkway where a maximum of two staff can sit for their tea break, which ambulance staff must walk through to find the storage area, where they lean on boxes when writing up their notes.

Despite these discouraging conditions, what I can say is that the staff of the Swan Hill emergency department are passionate and committed to providing excellent care for the people of Swan Hill. This hospital ED is worse than tired and I'm so proud of the attitude of the CEO, the head of ED and the staff who work every day in very difficult circumstances. I applaud their professionalism and their commitment to the wellbeing of the people of Swan Hill and surrounding communities.

I'm very pleased that our government is committed to a $30 million investment in this hospital, but the hospital needs much more. I urge the Victorian state Labor government to look beyond the 100-kilometre radius of Melbourne suburbs and invest in this hospital and indeed in the people of regional Victoria, who deserve much better than this.

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