Aussie hospital orders staff to prioritise Aboriginal patients in emergency department, sparking blunt response from Indigenous leader

A Melbourne hospital has come under fire for directing staff to fast-track the treatment of Indigenous patients over that of other Australians. 

St Vincent’s Hospital introduced a directive ordering staff to treat Indigenous patients within 30 minutes of arrival to the emergency department, potentially prioritising their treatment over others. 

The policy has won endorsement from the Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan who said it would help to achieve better health outcomes for ‘vulnerable groups’. 

But it has also attracted backlash from some who claim the move, which has been in place since April 2024, amounts to discrimination, could fuel division and undermine confidence in the healthcare system. 

Indigenous activist and prominent Voice ‘No’ campaigner Warren Mundine said treatment should be given based on the needs of the patient rather than their race.

‘We aren’t asking for that, we’re asking to be treated like everyone else,’ he told The Herald Sun.

He said he was shocked at policy and that common sense should dictate that seeing patients should be based on need. 

‘This is where (governments) try and do nice things and you wind up with idiot policies.’

 Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier said the policy amounted to a kind of ‘discrimination (that) will only divide our society’. 

She said the colour of a person’s skin should not affect the triaging of patients.

The St Vincent’s policy is a window, she argued, into what would happen in Victoria under a treaty being pursued by the state government. 

The government looks set to pass Australia’s first statewide Indigenous treaty bill this week, with debate to resume in the upper house. 

Mundine said he himself had attended St Vincent’s after he suffered a heart attack in 2012 and was rushed through after telling staff he had a pain in his chest.

‘That should be the only priority,’ he said.

Premier Allan defended the policy at a press conference on Tuesday, saying it was a ‘good example’ of a hospital improving outcomes for Indigenous Australian patients. 

‘The issue that is being addressed here is recognising that first peoples have poorer outcomes, first peoples have been waiting… longer to be treated,’ she said.

‘(St Vincent’s) are putting in place an initiative that supports the principle of treating… the sickest patients quickest.

‘When you have better outcomes for every health outcomes for everyone, that’s good for our strong, healthy community.’

She also rebuffed claims the directive undermines the principle that emergency departments ought to treat patients according to their needs. 

‘There has been some disadvantage in that (Indigenous) people haven’t been getting treated in that spirit of treating the sickest patients quickest.’

St Vincent’s has defended the policy, claiming it was necessary given Indigenous patients wait longer to be seen on average than non-Indigenous patients. 

It also cited research showing First Nations patients were more likely to remain engaged with care if seen within the first hour of presentation at emergency.  

‘ED wait times for First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians are now comparable thanks to the introduction of this policy,’ a spokesperson told the Herald Sun. 

‘It has had no negative impact on overall ED access and patient flow.’    

Under the policy, Indigenous patients are automatically assigned a minimum category three triage – meaning they must be attended to within 30 minutes.

First Nations Australians make up an estimated five per cent of the emergency departments presentations, the highest among Victorian hospitals. 

Daily Mail has contacted St Vincent’s for comment.