Ministerial Statement

REPATRIATION GENERAL HOSPITAL

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) (14:05): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I have been advised that today there has been an incident involving a patient detained under the Mental Health Act 2009 at the Repatriation General Hospital. The patient is alleged to have wounded a nurse. The nurse has been treated and received stitches in his arm. It is understood that the patient has yet to be located by the police.

I would like to reassure the SA Health staff and the community, of course, that the government takes all injuries to staff incurred during the course of their employment very seriously, and the incident will be subject to review. It just highlights the fact that our doctors and nurses and other staff in our hospitals do put their lives on the line in the delivery of their services.

All the necessary support will also be offered to the nurse, and my thoughts are, of course, with him and his colleagues at the Repatriation Hospital. As the matter is now the subject of a police investigation, it is not appropriate for further comment at this time. I understand that the hospital—I can get further information—was in lockdown for a large part of this morning. That has now been taken away. The police no longer believe the person is on the grounds of the hospital, but they are pursuing him elsewhere.