Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday announced that Ms Neville had returned to work after the senior minister was forced to take leave in February.Ms Neville was admitted to hospital and spent a week in ICU before undergoing surgery twice in April.Crohn’s disease is a chronic auto-immune disease that she was diagnosed with 32 years ago, causing inflammation in the digestive tract that can lead to severe pain, malnutrition, weight loss and diarrhoea.“Lisa has shown enormous strength and resilience through her recovery from surgery and treatment for Crohn’s disease, and I know how determined she has been to return to work,” Mr Andrews said in a statement.The police minister repeatedly delayed her return to work, after revealing she was admitted to hospital again in late May to control ongoing symptoms of the disease.She needed to have weekly infusions after the surgery to provide the nutrients her body was struggling to retain.Despite returning to work, Ms Neville won’t be able to travel on short notice, due to the constraints of the disease.Mr Andrews said her previous roles of Minister for Emergency Services would be handed over to Attorney General Jaclyn Symes.“Lisa and I have discussed what she needs to do to ensure her health continues to improve and her recovery is sustainable,” he said.“After considering advice from her doctors, she has been clear that some of the requirements of the Emergency Services portfolio, including regular travel around to remote parts of the state at short notice, are simply not compatible with managing her condition and recovery.”Ms Neville previously said the flare up of the disease this year was “the worst I have been confronted with”.“I am working hard to rebuild my physical and mental strength, after so long battling this flare-up and the toll the surgeries and complications have taken,” she said in a statement in June.“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.”rhiannon.tuffield@news.com.au
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