HOSPITALS, FUNDING

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (15:38): In the Sustainable Budget Commission's list of items that could be cut, according to the razor gang is:

Cessation of service contracts. Under this initiative it is proposed to cease existing funding provided to private hospitals in the metropolitan and country areas (CE priority of 16).

So, it is way down there. It does say here, though, 'Account manager. The removal of funding will likely result in the closure of most of these private hospitals.' So, there is no doubt about it, the minister and the government knew that these hospitals would be in threat of closure and, as we heard today, they will close without the continuing funding from the government. This is not a charity handout, this is not dealing with Healthscope or the Catholic Church and all the other big organisations that run very good private hospitals; these are community hospitals.

Even in my own electorate of Morphett, there is the Glenelg Community Hospital. My son was born there. It serves the community very well. A very good friend of mine has just had a knee replacement there, but they also provide a Recovery at the Bay scheme which saves them thousands and thousands of dollars. I wonder what the former federal candidate for Boothby would be thinking about the Glenelg Community Hospital having its money cut by her colleagues in the Labor government in this state. It is the wrong thing to do.

Glenelg will survive, but the others will not. We heard a ministerial statement today about inputs. We heard about the inputs but, if you do not increase funding and staffing, you will go backwards at a million miles an hour. We know that health inflation is between 9 and 12 per cent. We know that lifestyle diseases are increasing the demand; we know that, so we had better increase the inputs. What we are not hearing about is the outputs.

In this particular case, we are not seeing improvements in the way country people are being treated regarding hospitals. Again and again, we are seeing a repeat of the 2008 failed policy on country health. Moonta, Ardrossan and Keith need the government's support. It is not a charity handout. They are actually saving this government thousands and thousands of dollars. The step-down facilities used at McLaren Vale can be repeated all over this state—particularly at Moonta, Ardrossan and Keith—to get 500 or so country people out of city hospitals.

They are in city hospitals, but they should be back home in their communities as soon as possible. They will not be able to do that if the hospitals and the beds are not there. The way they are being treated is a disgrace. To rub salt into the wound, we are also seeing the petrol subsidy cut by this government. Petrol is going up by at least 3½¢ a litre, so we are going to see country people not only having to travel further for health services but having to pay more. They are being disadvantaged in many ways.

The other thing that we used to have was the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme (PATS) if those country people had to come to town, but what did we see in the last budget? We saw an 8 per cent cut in the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme. Some 46,943 people used that scheme last year, but the government wants to cut it down to 43,350 this year. There has not been an increase in funding for many years. The PATS brochure still has a 2004 date on it. So, they will not update the brochure and inform people of what assistance they are actually getting, which is not very much at all.

In the budget, patient satisfaction levels for both country and metropolitan are amazingly static, right across many years, and they are all very high. It seems so amazing that I wonder if these patient satisfaction levels are real. We are not seeing performance reports on country emergency departments. Why not? Because we know that there are serious issues there. The Stevens report into the emergency department in Mount Gambier will not be released. Why? Because there are issues there. They know that there are issues there just as there are issues in metropolitan emergency departments.

I come to the issue of empty beds. We are only paying for a few beds here. The occupancy of country hospitals is, fortunately, not like the Lyell McEwin, The Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Adelaide, Flinders and Noarlunga. On any day, when they are running at 100 per cent, country hospitals run at 60 to 70 per cent. There are empty beds that we are paying for and, just like a fire engine in a fire station, we are happy to pay for them because, if it does really hit the fan, we know that those beds will be there for the people of South Australia who are paying taxes through the GST.

We are now going to see 30 per cent of the GST go to Canberra, and we are going to see those taxpayers disenfranchised if this government has its way. At the moment, taxpayers are paying for those beds to be available. Just like a fire engine—it does not have to be on the road putting out fires all the time, but it should be there. This health system has to provide a safety net for people, not just in the city but in the country as well. Country people should not be disadvantaged, and this government is doing that.

Time expired.