HOSPITAL EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:54): My question is again to the Minister for Health. Will the minister confirm that the emergency department at the Royal Adelaide Hospital is still three nurses below the agreed staffing threshold, and that the government has not yet advertised these vacancies?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister for Police, sit down! Minister for Health.

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) (14:55): Of course, as minister I do not go through the appointments process—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: You think I should—that's terrific. That's great—I should be the staffing officer of the health system. That's terrific.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I warn the member for Bragg.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Let me inform the house that, through the enterprise bargaining arrangements with nurses, we have a very strict formula that applies staff to our hospitals. We have a formula approach and every time that we go below that, for one reason or another, the nurses union takes us down to the Industrial Relations Commission. I am absolutely certain that if there was a problem there I would be the first to be told about it by the nurses union. We staff as we need to in order to make sure there is sufficient staff in our hospitals to deal with the patients who come through.

As the comparison with all the other states show, we have more nurses per head of population than any other Australian state; we have more doctors per head of population than any other Australian state; and we also have more beds available per head of population compared to all the other states. We resource our system as we need to. If there are any problems attracting nurses I would be very surprised but if there are I am sure it will be dealt with in the appropriate way.