MS PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:51:17):
My constituency question is for the Minister for Health and concerns the need for a transplant centre of excellence.
I recently met with Gordon Jenkins. His wife is a lung transplant recipient—one of the many in Victoria due to the success of our transplant schemes here and the great work that our doctors do. He is absolutely immersed in making sure that she gets the best possible care.
Every lung transplant patient will probably come into the health system between 20 and 80 times a year for clinic visits that range from the chronic to the acute. They are going back and forth, and this is ever-increasing. In fact we have seen an increase in clinic visits of transplant patients of 35 per cent since 2014.
Mr Jenkins was asking me about the Lungitude Foundation, which is trying to set up a feasibility study for the creation of a transplant centre of excellence that would create structures to integrate health services into a concentrated ecosystem to benefit post-transplant patients—not just lung recipients but across all organ types.
My question for the minister is: will the government commit to funding a feasibility study by the Lungitude Foundation for a transplant centre of excellence?
Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Constituency Question asked 30/4/19
