MEDICAL STAFF, OVERSEAS TRAVEL

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:31): My question is again to the Minister for Health. Can the minister explain why it was necessary to send eight senior public servants and clinicians on an overseas trip to the United Kingdom in February this year to look at managing demands in public hospitals?

I ask this question in light of the fact that in 2006-07 the Health Department spent $7,192 on travel to England to investigate health care reform initiatives in the UK; $26,705 to attend expos in the UK; $10,504 to attend the British Medical Council Fair; and $11,771 for health department officials to accompany the minister and chief executive to the US to study their health system for health reform. In fact, health department headquarters itself spent $110,854, and that does not include travel undertaken—

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I rise on a point of order. The explanation is way beyond anything needed to explain the question.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. Any member can rise and withdraw leave from the explanation. It does not require a point of order. I remind members that explanations should be contained to an explanation of the question itself, not offer anything other than what is necessary to explain the question. 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) (14:33): I find it extraordinary that the deputy leader asks the question and is in the media attacking the government for not settling the dispute with the doctors about their pay and conditions. In fact, one of the items in all of that is the money that we put into the training of doctors and the opportunity for them to travel to learn about how other systems operate.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: They are all doctors. I do not know what the deputy leader is speaking about. I informed the house a month or so ago of a visit to the United Kingdom by a group of clinicians from South Australia to examine the public hospital system there and to look at the way they were managing demand in busy emergency departments. We sent doctors, nurses and a couple of senior officers to visit those hospitals in the United Kingdom. I think that is the trip that the member refers to. I have given a full account to this house about that. I refer members to what I said at the—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I believe the member is talking about the same group. I will check that. We sent the clinicians over there to look at how the British medical system is adapting to deal with the increasing demand on its emergency departments. It is really about how one designs the care of individuals through the public health system, and they have reformed their emergency department and acute services in Britain quite substantially. We are looking at how we can adapt those initiatives into our system, particularly as we develop the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital.

As I understand it, the doctors and nurses who went on that visit were very impressed and are now working in their own workplaces in regard to that. As to other officials, I would point out that I am not entirely sure of the travel budget for the health department, but by a long chalk the majority of travel undertaken and paid for within health—and it is substantial—is to send doctors overseas as part of their legitimate expectations to be updated in their fields of expertise.

That is not something of which I am critical. It is an important part of their work and their role to maintain their skills and expertise, and doctors do travel a lot. They go to a lot of conferences, and they participate in a lot of international events. We would spend millions of dollars, I am sure, each year supporting that activity. There are some public servants—God forbid!—who are not necessarily clinicians who also participate in international events. We have a budget in health of something like $3,500 million. The $100,000 for public servant travel that the member referred to strikes me as being a very small proportion of that.