FLINDERS MEDICAL CENTRE CASUAL NURSE SHIFTS

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:04): My question is again to the Minister for Health. Can the minister confirm that officials from the Australian Nursing Federation met with his department recently to object to a reduction in the length of casual nurse shifts at the Flinders Medical Centre? Current arrangements for nurses at the Flinders Medical Centre allow for seven-hour shifts for casual nurses. Budget cutbacks have been blamed by management for the reduction in those shifts to seven hours, and Australian Nursing Federation officials have complained that the cuts leave a two-hour gap in patient care between shifts, resulting in threats to patient safety. The opposition has been further told that a deal was struck yesterday to diffuse the issue in light of the election on Saturday.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:05): She's good. Let me tell the member a number of things. First, I am certain that the nurses federation meets regularly with the department—I would be very surprised if it did not. It also meets regularly with me. This is not an issue that has been raised with me by them, by the department, or by anyone else. so I doubt if it is all that important to the nurses. What I do know, and I can tell the deputy leader this for nothing, is that if the nurses have an issue of concern they are pretty quick to let me know about it. The second point—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The deputy leader will come to order.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: She goes on and on and on. I would hate to be a member of a caucus which had the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in it.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: That's your problem. You don't actually meet and have a strategy. You are just sole operators, as the member for Davenport demonstrated so clearly today. The second point I will make is there have been no funding cuts to the Flinders Medical Centre. As every citizen of this state knows, we put more and more and more money into our public health system every single year, and we will continue to do that. I can assure the house there will be no funding cuts at the Flinders Medical Centre.

The third point I would make is that I have an expectation, as does the Treasurer, that we run our hospital system as efficiently and effectively as we possibly can while maintaining the highest possible clinical standards. That is the duty of every manager in the health system and if they are not trying to work out ways of doing things better then I want to know why. In relation to clinical care, I can assure members that clinical care is the highest priority for the health system and all management decisions are directed at maximising clinical outcomes.