ELECTIVE SURGERY

Ms SIMMONS (Morialta) (15:08): My question is to the Minister for Health. What support has the government received for the record low overdue elective surgery waiting lists?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:08): I thank the member for Morialta for this excellent question. The South Australian government—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: You are still asking questions on health, Vickie; that would be delightful. The South Australian government, in combination with the commonwealth and with the commitment of public hospital staff, last year launched a campaign to reduce waiting times for elective surgery in the hospitals in this state. This has been a very successful campaign which has ensured that people waiting the longest for elective surgery received their operation. Praise for this campaign has come from a most unusual source—the member for Morphett.

The new shadow health spokesman told the Australian Nursing Federation's In Touch publication recently the following:

We need to cut hospital waiting times for emergency treatment and elective surgery and I give credit to the current hospital administrators that, having used Federal Government money, they have reduced the elective surgery waiting lists considerably.

I thank the member for Morphett for that; however, I note that the federal government and the people who run the hospitals get credit, but the state government gets none at all. If these targets had not been met, I know who would have been responsible and I know who he would have been blaming. It would not have been hospital administrators or the federal government: it would have been me. They may have changed their leader, but it is politics as usual when it comes to the health portfolio on the other side.

Through this campaign the commonwealth government provided our state with $13.6 million to undertake additional elective surgery procedures between 1 January 2008 and 31 December last year. The state government allocated an additional $55 million over four years between 2006-07 and 2009-10 to provide more elective surgery and reduce waiting time. So, the commonwealth government and the state government have both put in additional funds to try to deal with this issue.

Of course, key to the campaign were the very dedicated doctors, nurses and other staff across our public hospitals who provided their skills to ensure that these commitments were reached. I want to pay tribute to those people who really did put their backs into it. As a result, more than 44,400 elective surgery procedures were provided to South Australians in 2008-09. This is an absolute record. That is more than 5,500 extra procedures or more than 16 per cent extra elective surgery in 2008-09 than in the last year of the previous government—16 per cent more elective surgery and 5,500 extra procedures.

At the end of June this year, there were only 32 patients waiting longer than they should have had to wait for surgery—that is using the classifications worked out by the colleges. That is down from 2,023 overdue patients in January last year. So, this surge money that the commonwealth has provided has had 98.5 per cent success in reducing those who are waiting longer than the agreed time. The work is continuing between the state and the commonwealth to get people their elective surgery even more quickly. A further $8.1 million has been allocated from the commonwealth to support infrastructure development across our hospitals for elective surgery, and I thank them for that.

After tackling elective surgery, work is now focusing on getting people timely outpatient appointments after they have been referred to specialists by their general practitioners. Again, I want to praise the work of hospital staff who really embraced this campaign. They have been integral to its success. I am hopeful that this different, more positive approach from the new shadow health spokesperson indicates an emerging bipartisanship from the opposition. I somehow doubt it, however.