HOSPITAL EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Health. After nine years in government, why are South Australians being forced to wait on trolleys in the corridors of our major public hospitals?

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) (14:49): I have always liked the way the member for Morphett, as the shadow minister for health, gets a question about halfway down the list after I have actually given the house the information that is relevant to his question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I refer him to the answer I gave before, when I pointed out—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morialta!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: As I pointed out to him and to the house earlier on, waiting times have, in fact, reduced right across the board and, in particular, at the Flinders Medical Centre, where—for the benefit of the house I will explain it again—we are undertaking major capital works development to increase the size of the emergency department so that it can adequately deal with the number of people going through that department. As a result of that, some space in the hospital has been temporarily put out of action and a new arrangement put in place so that patients can be properly looked after as they come through.

This has not increased the amount of time the patients have to wait. In fact, as I pointed out, the amount of time they have to wait has come down. In fact, we have recently opened an acute medical unit at the Flinders Medical Centre to allow early admission of patients who go to the emergency department and who we know will need to be admitted. When I went to the hospital and opened this new unit just a few weeks ago, the director of the emergency department told me how remarkably well the system is now working and how pleased she was.

So, rather than spread glib lies about the health system, as the opposition does all the time, I ask it to look properly at what is going on. We have a fantastic health system in our state, and we will do everything we can to make it as good as we possibly can, despite all the opposition spin, fibs, glib comments, exaggerated comments, scare tactics and all the rest of it. Saying that an average patient waits for 18 hours at the Royal Adelaide Hospital is absolutely untrue; it is a total exaggeration, and is typical of the way the opposition deals with this debate.

Of course, when it gets down to it, they have no policies of their own. They are opposed to building new infrastructure for our state, they are opposed to targets for hospital waiting times. They have no policies at all, they rely only on fear and—

Mr PENGILLY: I rise on a point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order! We have a point of order.

Mr PENGILLY: Standing order 98.

The SPEAKER: I think the minister has finished his answer.