A senior Victorian health official has been grilled over crucial public health decisions made throughout the Covid-19 pandemic amid concern mental health in the state has suffered gravely under lockdown orders and ongoing restrictions.
The state’s capital, Melbourne, earnt the title of most locked-down city in the world, forcing its residents to stay at home for 262 days over two years.
During the ordeal, shops shuttered, people worked and learnt from home, families and friends were kept apart and businesses folded, ultimately pushing an already struggling mental health system to breaking point.
At the same time emergency departments reported a dire rise in presentations linked to mental health.
Appearing before the state’s pandemic oversight committee on Friday, Victoria’s health department secretary, Professor Euan Wallace, was asked if the government got the balance wrong between keeping people safe and looking after their mental health.
“The possibility of causing harm was always considered by the chief health officer in the development of his advice to the minister,” Professor Wallace told the committee.
“The CHO of course weighed up the potential mental health burden of social restrictions.”
Evidence provided to the committee showed emergency department presentations for mental health symptoms increased dramatically over the past year.
The data, from the Victorian government, showed 1856 presentations for mental-health-related reasons up to January 21 this year compared with 1324 in February 2021 and 261 in June 2020.
During a tense exchange with Professor Wallace, committee member Emma Kealy, a Victorian Nationals MP, said presentations had increased by 407 per cent to February last year and a further 40.2 per cent up to January.
“I’m very concerned the devastating impacts of mental health have not been appropriately prioritised by the government,” Ms Kealy said.
“I’d like to know in your role, heading up the Department of Health, what advice have you provided about concerns that the orders were having on the mental health of Victorians.”
Professor Wallace said the department had provided advice throughout the pandemic.
“I think you’ll recall from previous budgets, the government has invested heavily in mental health both in 2020 and 2021 and this year to specifically address the impacts of Covid and social restrictions,” he said.
“It’s about the orders, the orders and the pandemic causing the harm, not about the budget,” Ms Kealy responded.
In late January, the Victorian government reversed a decision to place a blanket ban on IVF procedures after widespread backlash.
The government initially put the ban in place amid the state’s Omicron outbreak, along with a ban on elective surgery, to reduce strain on the health system.
The move received widespread backlash from the community, including from women and Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who claimed IVF should only be halted as a last resort.
Professor Wallace, who made the call on the ban, was asked whether it was a mistake to enforce the suspension.
He said health officials had engaged with the sector and the move did not interrupt women in the middle of treatment.
“Women who had already commenced their cycle continued through the cycle, so there was no interruption for existing egg stimulation cycles,” he said.
“We hear the angst it causes.”
The pandemic declaration accountability and oversight committee was set up late last year to encourage transparency from the government surrounding pandemic orders.
In an earlier hearing this week, the heads of two major regional hospitals conceded it would take years to address an elective surgery backlog that reached into the tens of thousands.
Professor Wallace relayed the same concern to the committee and said a plan was under way to address the issue.
Following the hearing, opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said there had been a lack of transparency.
“Today we saw Labor block questions about the composition of the department’s medical panels, mental health call statistics and vital surgery waiting list numbers,” she said.
“Victorians deserve transparency over the orders Daniel Andrews has over our lives, not a protection racket for a premier who likes the control.”
