House of Assembly Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2) 51 2 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Glenside Hospital Redevelopment GLENSIDE HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT Ms CHAPMAN House of Assembly Bragg Deputy Leader of the Opposition GLENSIDE HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:56): My question again is to the Premier. Why is the Premier allowing the sale of nearly half of the Glenside Hospital, preventing an expansion of mental health services, when the Paxton report states that this issue is adversely affecting other general public hospitals? The Paxton report into the efficiency of our health system has identified the urgent need to deal with increasing demands from mental health. It states that 'increasing mental health demand is adversely impacting on the efficiency and cost profile of emergency departments in the hospitals reviewed'. The report goes on to say that 'the flow-on operational effects of this demand have been identified as being problematic, requiring urgent specific focus'. The Hon. J.D. HILL House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health Minister for the Southern Suburbs Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts GLENSIDE HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:57): To draw a connection between what Paxton had to say and the proposals the government has for the Glenside site is drawing such a long bow that I think even Robin Hood would blush. The fact is that the Paxton report talks about the efficiencies operating in the RAH: they did not look at the Glenside Hospital. If the Deputy Leader of the Opposition genuinely and honestly thinks that leaving a 19^th century building to house mental health facilities on a large lump of land is the best thing we can do for mental health in South Australia, well pity help the public of South Australia if she were ever to become minister. Our government strategy is to modernise and contemporise the facilities at Glenside to make them relevant to the current generation of mental health patients, in part, to support that change by selling off some of the land for community purposes, which will give great benefit to her community, which will give her even more electors to look after in her electorate and which will create a new facility for this state. If she seriously thinks that the current arrangements at Glenside are world class, she is deluded.