Question Time

ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:39): My question is to the Minister for Families and Communities. Will the minister explain why patients at the Royal Adelaide Hospital who have been designated for out-of-hospital community care remain in hospital for an extended time? The opposition has received health department documents indicating that a number of patients should be transferred to out-of-hospital community care, including four inpatients who have been in hospital for 585 days, 312 days, 259 days and 193 days respectively.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! 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) (14:39): Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is well known, I think, and members on both sides of the house would understand, there are certain patients for whom it is often very difficult to find appropriate community-based solutions. When their health needs have been addressed in a hospital, not frequently but in some cases, it is often not very easy to find a community-based solution.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Unley!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It is not always easy to find a solution. In fact, I recall a patient in one of the hospitals—and I will not refer to the hospital because it might identify the patient—who had, in fact, been in hospital since the time that Dean Brown was the minister for health. That patient's placement there was by an arrangement that he, as the then minister, made. It is not always possible to find easily in the community a solution to—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I know it sounds like a long time, but it is not always possible, and it could be that, for a range of—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The member for Bragg—the beachport suburb of Burnside which she represents—says, 'Why not build them a house?' It is not a matter of building houses: it is a matter of having appropriate support. Sometimes patients have complex physical needs which require a whole range of treatments. Sometimes they have very complex mental health needs. Sometimes they have complex disabilities. Sometimes they are very young. Sometimes, all of those factors apply at once. It is not always possible to easily find solutions for those people.

We work as hard as we can through health and through the agencies that my colleague is responsible for to try to package together solutions to those circumstances. Sometimes, offers are made to patients and their families about a particular way that the matter can be dealt with, and those suggestions are rejected. Sometimes, patients have unrealistic expectations about where they can live and in what circumstances, and, sometimes, their carers have very unrealistic expectations about what can happen in the community. All of those are factors which we work on. If the member has a particular patient he would like—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —me to investigate and get some information on, I am more than happy to provide it but, obviously, I cannot in this place and in public talk about particular patients.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Get a question up.

The SPEAKER: Order!