COUNTRY HEALTH SERVICES

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon) (14:22): Can the Minister for Health advise the house in greater detail how medical services in country South Australia will be improved by the state budget?

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: Point of order. Questions on the state budget are out order; it is a bill before the house.

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: No, we haven't. The question clearly referred to the state budget; the question is out of order.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order. Those are my—

The SPEAKER: Order! How many points of order can we have at one time? We will deal first of all with—

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I would just invite my colleague on this side—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: Madam Speaker. My understanding is that if a point of order has been raised it is not orderly to raise another point of order until—

The SPEAKER: Sit down!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Sit down!

The Hon. K.O. Foley: Then why are you trying to do it?

Mr WILLIAMS: Because I'm trying—

The SPEAKER: Sit down!

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The SPEAKER: And yours too. You can sit down, too. I have a very clear choice here: we either allow the question to go ahead and ask that the minister be very careful about his answer in relation to the debate that is going through the house currently, or we can refuse the question; however, there will be no other questions allowed this afternoon relating to the budget.

I think I will allow the minister to answer the question, but I will listen very carefully to his answer, and if I think he is breaching the rules of the place I will ask him to stop; otherwise, we stop all questions about the budget this afternoon. It is your choice. Go ahead, minister.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:24): Without referring to specifics in the budget, I can talk about the government's plans in relation to country health, which is very high on my list of priorities.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It is the government's plan to, in fact, increase expenditure in country health this year by a considerable amount—in fact, 13 per cent. The reason we are doing that is to improve services in country South Australia, for two reasons: first, it is obviously in the best interests of people who live in country South Australia to have services closer to home; but, secondly, it also, of course, means that fewer people will have to travel to the city where we know there is enormous pressure on the services in the city. So, it benefits us in a general sense but it also benefits the individuals.

I just want to go through some of those details. The geography and population distribution of South Australia, of course, means that people will always need to come to the city for some high-end complex treatments; that will always be the case, but there is no reason why a lot of things cannot be placed in country areas. A good example, Madam Speaker, of how this can work is the rollout of ECG machines across country South Australia.

I can advise the house today that this rollout is now complete, and every one of South Australia's 67 public country hospitals now has an ECG machine linked to Flinders Medical Centre's upgraded MUSE cardiology system. That means that every country hospital in South Australia now is linked to Flinders, and every single one of those hospitals has an ECG machine. So, if members anywhere in the state happen to have a heart problem, they know that their local—

Mr Venning interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I am not looking at you, Ivan—hospital (including the Barossa hospitals) will be linked into Flinders with the technology that can provide the very best service. MUSE is a digital system that retains and organises ECGs, letting staff access a patient's history and detect any differences between multiple ECGs performed on a particular patient over time.

ECG machines are diagnostic tools that let medical staff measure and record electrical activity in a patient's heart, helping them diagnose and treat specific conditions ranging from minor to life-threatening. Having ECG machines at all our country hospital emergency departments means that staff can use MUSE to send an ECG to an on-call cardiology specialist in a major city hospital. The technology can quite literally save lives as country doctors can now use the skills and knowledge of city specialists in order to treat their patients.

I hope that every member would agree that this is an excellent breakthrough which we now have in South Australia. More than 240 Country Health SA staff have received training at 17 sessions held across the state on how to use these new systems—a good investment in our people, as well as in the machinery.

This government pledges to introduce country chemotherapy centres on the same sort of principle. The 2010-11 budget will provide—

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I am not allowed to mention the word 'budget'. Sorry, I cannot mention the 'b' word. I want to let members know that money will be coming from a place that I cannot mention over the next four years worth $5.9 million to meet an election commitment. An electronic oncology prescribing system will enable patients to be treated in different hospitals. This is something I commend to members on the other side who do represent rural communities.

It will mean that people in country South Australia will be able to get chemotherapy closer to where they live. For example, a country patient may see a cancer specialist in the city who would provide a treatment program, and then the patient could receive the ongoing treatment locally in the country.

We have been doing this to some degree at Port Pirie, as the member for Frome knows, but this is currently a limited service and our proposition is to have this service expanded. The electronic prescribing system will allow, in the first instance, Port Pirie, Mount Gambier, Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Berri hospitals to be established as regional chemotherapy hubs. Once these centres are established and operating safely, the service will expand to Port Augusta, Clare, Gawler, Mount Barker, Murray Bridge, Naracoorte and the Northern Yorke Peninsula Regional Health Service, as well as the South Coast District Hospital.

In all those services staff will be trained, equipment will be placed in there and connections will be made with the city so that patients from those communities can have chemotherapy in their own home towns rather than have to travel to the city. Many of us here, of course, would have friends and family who have had to go through chemotherapy. Everyone would know how distressing it is, and to have to travel with that distress makes it even worse. This will help those people enormously.

We are also, of course, upgrading facilities and biomedical equipment in the country. We will also undertake an extra 3,444 more elective surgical procedures over the next four years, and there is a whole slew of capital works as well at Berri, Ceduna, Whyalla and Port Pirie. There will be new BreastScreen country mobile units and new mental health care facilities as well. Finally, of course, the upgrade of Hamill House nursing home at Port Pirie Hospital will be completed. This government can do it: the former government could not.