By Noel Murphy
Using the death of a Jan Juc man to score political points on ambulance services was a “new low” for Labor, according to State Government.
The man’s heart attack was one of six incidents the opposition used to attack Health Minister David Davis over paramedics taking more than 15 minutes to reach fatal cases.
Opposition health spokesman Gavin Jennings said the Government had refused to investigate the six cases, instead taking aim at “hard-working paramedics” and refusing to take the deaths seriously.
“There is a family in Jan Juc who simply want answers, not excuses, but they’re relying on Victoria’s worst-ever Health Minister,” he said.
“Six families are mourning the loss of a loved one but Mr Davis just wants to play politics.”
Mr Davis lashed back, telling the Independent one incident involved a suicide that was reported to 000 only after the body was found.
Mr Davis said the opposition should be ashamed about becoming “the public mouthpiece of the militant ambulance union by exploiting cases of family distress in pursuit of a political campaign”.
“There are factual errors in a number of the matters compiled by the union and put forward as fact by Mr Jennings,” Mr Davis said.
“I remind him that the union has used him to provide specific information about people in remote communities, which may well lead to their identification.
“Several of these matters have a deal of sensitivity and I am concerned their public airing will cause further distress to the families involved.
“Shame on Gavin Jennings if he was aware of this background information and still chose to do the union’s bidding by publicly highlighting it in parliament.”
