Vic police minister delays return to work
Police and Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville has announced she must further delay her return to Victorian parliament from June to August.
Ms Neville, who also holds the water portfolio, said on Friday that since a severe flare-up of her Crohn's disease in 2020 she has experienced various complications with her recovery from bowel surgery.
That has left her physically unable to return to work by the end of this month, creating a second delay having earlier hoped she'd be back in February.
"This additional delay has been personally very disappointing to me, but my doctors have a plan and I anticipate that all going well, I will be able to return at some point in August - subject to medical advice," Ms Neville said in a statement on Friday.
Complications to her treatment included multiple surgeries and a week-long stay in intensive care after doctors found her small bowel in a critical condition.
"My surgery involved removal of the terminal ileum of the small bowel, leading to malabsorption of key electrolytes, which require me to have weekly infusions to give my body the nutrients it is struggling to keep," she said.
A complication from her bowel problems also involves "chronic diarrhoea" - a common result of the surgery and one suffered by many with Crohn's disease, though not openly discussed, the minister said.
"To say this experience shook me is an understatement. Particularly my week in ICU."
"Despite the best possible medical care, finding out I had reached that level of seriousness gave me a very real scare.
"I miss work, but these jobs are not something you can do part time. You have to be able to give it your all. As frustrating as it is, I am just not at that point yet."
Ms Neville's police and emergency portfolio has been managed by Health Minister Martin Foley in her absence - including oversight of COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria - while planning minister Richard Wynne has been covering the water portfolio.
Her absence follows that of Premier Daniel Andrews who is expected back at his desk on Monday after damaging his spinal cord in a fall at a Mornington Peninsula holiday home on March 9.
