LYELL McEWIN HOSPITAL

Mr O'BRIEN (Napier) (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Health. What is the state government doing to establish the Lyell McEwin Hospital as the key health and medical facility of Adelaide's north?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:45): I thank the member for Napier for his question and acknowledge his strong advocacy for the Lyell McEwin Hospital. Incidentally, the Lyell McEwin Hospital was named after a former Liberal health minister, but it was not properly supported by the former government.

As most South Australians would know, this government is currently reforming our health system, and we are doing it to improve service delivery. It is something that we have to do. Our plan is to make the experience and outcomes for patients even better than they are now, and an integral part of that is modernisation of our hospital system.

Last year, the government announced it would build a brand new hospital for South Australia, the $1.7 billion Marjorie Jackson-Nelson hospital, to replace the ageing Royal Adelaide Hospital as well as elements of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This will result in South Australians getting a brand new hospital—more cost effective than rebuilding the RAH—with no inconvenience to patients, staff and hospital visitors. Also, the state government is expanding the Flinders Medical Centre at a cost of $153 million. Lyell McEwin Hospital, the hospital of Adelaide's northern suburbs, is also, I am pleased to say, undergoing a makeover.

Last year, when the government launched South Australia's Health Care Plan, we pledged an extra $202 million to the Lyell McEwin, on top of the $134 million that has been transforming the hospital in recent years. This $336 million project, as it is now, will provide the people of the north with a state-of-the-art modern hospital for the first time. Under the plan, Lyell McEwin will be expanded to offer more services to the local community, allowing people to have their treatment closer to home.

Lyell McEwin will provide a wide range of major complex medical, surgical, diagnostic and support services for adults and surgical and medical services for children, as well as expanded maternity services for women. Expanded services offered by the Lyell McEwin Hospital will include: cardiac services, including conventional cardiology; urology; ophthalmology; orthopaedics; cancer services, including radiation therapy; neurology; and, of course, general medicine.

Lyell McEwin's maternity services have also been expanded, with an additional $5 million being injected into the services every year. Lyell McEwin will take on an expanded role as the centre for birthing in the northern suburbs, with the closure of Modbury Hospital's birthing unit a couple of weeks ago. Less than 25 per cent of women who could have had their babies at Modbury Hospital chose to do so in 2005-06, with many opting to go to the Lyell McEwin.

Modbury is now being remodelled to build up on services most needed by its local community, with a range of extra elective surgery in areas including orthopaedics, stroke services and an aged care assessment unit, important in our ageing community.

Lyell McEwin's maternity services have been booming in recent years, with 2,251 births last year—that is 157 extra babies on the previous year—and that service will continue to grow. The birthing facilities at Lyell McEwin are being expanded to include: 26 extra midwives; eight additional doctors, including one extra senior obstetrics specialist and a senior paediatrician for critically ill newborns—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Repetition is useful sometimes. As a former teacher, I understand the need to repeat messages for slower members of a class. There will be up to five extra allied health staff, including social workers, pharmacists and a sonographer; three extra beds in the obstetrics unit; four additional special care nursery cots and room for another four cots; and a new antenatal assessment unit with eight additional beds.

I would invite members of this house—if they have not been out there for some time—to visit the Lyell McEwin Hospital. I am sure that they will be impressed. I wish to thank the obstetrics staff at Modbury Hospital who have done a fantastic job over the years bringing new life into the world. Many of these staff have moved across to the Lyell McEwin to continue offering their special skills to the families of the northern suburbs.