Constituency Questions – Shepparton Electorate

Kim O’KEEFFE (Shepparton) (14:53): (712) My question is to the Minister for Health, and the information I seek is: how will the minister address the staff shortages at Goulburn Valley Health when the hospital is experiencing regular requests to put a freeze on staff recruitment? I was contacted by a staff member from GV Health who said, and I quote, ‘the hospital is in a mess.’ On this particular day the emergency department was short by 10 nurses plus staff on sick leave. She said these positions are usually replaced with agency staff but that had been frozen, and it was the same for theatre and medical staffing. They are closing beds instead. She said that there is also a freeze on any recruitment, so no new additional staff are allowed. Agency staff who are about to finish contracts were told they would not be reinstated. The problem is only going to get worse with an extraordinary 500 job vacancies that need to be filled, yet there is a freeze on recruitment. She said they are continually faced with ambulances ramped for hours because of no staff and enforced bed closures. She said that this is what they are continually faced with.