House of Assembly Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1) 52 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Eating Disorder Unit EATING DISORDER UNIT Dr McFETRIDGE House of Assembly Morphett EATING DISORDER UNIT Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:36): My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister confirm that people who— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order, the Minister for Mineral Resources Development! Dr McFETRIDGE House of Assembly Dr McFETRIDGE: —are still at a critical stage of an eating disorder and require hospitalisation will now be treated in general hospital wards rather than at a specialised eating disorder unit? The Hon. J.D. HILL House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Minister for the Southern Suburbs Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts 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) (14:37): I would say to the member that, before he starts jumping into yet another issue without checking his facts, the report that I tabled today will be online now and I would encourage him to access that through the SA Health website. As I said in my report, we will work with the sector itself through the implementation stage to refine exactly how these things will be done. The report recommends that we do this in an incremental way over a period of one to two years. So, in the period until this is implemented, Ward 4G will continue to provide the services. Ward 4G, of course, is a mixed surgical ward anyway, with a number of patients with mental health disorders. That is a matter of fact. What we will make sure of is that if patients need clinical in-hospital care then they will receive that. One of the recommendations of the Royal College of Psychiatrists is that care should be given as close as possible to where people live, so we will explore how that can be done as well.