HOSPITALS

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:29): My question is to the Minister for Health. Why after almost 10 years in office is the minister having to apologise to the South Australian people for the state of the health system? I will briefly explain. On 3 February 2002 the then opposition leader Mike Rann, in promising to fix the state's health system, said:

People...are scared they will end up on a trolley in a hospital corridor waiting frantically for 24 hours or more to be admitted. Or in an ambulance being driven all over town in search of a hospital somewhere, for an emergency ward, with a bed.

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) (14:30): I thank the member for her question. The facts are that South Australia has an excellent healthcare system; it is one of the very best in the world. We as a government have continued to invest resources in that healthcare system—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Norwood, you are warned for the second time.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —to meet the demand of the public of our state which, as members would know, is ageing, and as you age you are more likely to need healthcare services, so we have invested in them. I went through the figures over the last couple of days: a huge increase in the number of doctors; a huge increase in the number of nurses; a huge increase in the number of allied health workers; and 260 additional beds with 250 beds on the way. Over the course of this term of government we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into extra capacity in our healthcare system, including and in particular at the Flinders Medical Centre—in particular at the emergency department of the Flinders Medical Centre.

The reality is that if you are to do building work on an operational hospital site it does cause restrictions in the supply. I made that point publicly a year ago when I announced that the building works were to begin. I said that you can expect to see some issues here over the next 12 months or so while we go through the building works. Surprise, surprise: there have been issues at the Flinders Medical Centre.

I inspected the Flinders Medical Centre emergency department works last week, and I am pleased to say they are progressing well and we will start to see that extra capacity come online in October or November, which will address a lot of the capacity issues at the emergency department. There will still be several months while the waiting area where patients and families wait for services is being renovated.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker, the opposition asked the question. I give, I think, a non-political answer with just factual information. They continue to interject. They have absolutely no ideas themselves. They have not made one positive suggestion in the entire 9½ years that they have been in opposition.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Yes, I am the minister, and I am telling you what I am doing. The Flinders Medical Centre emergency department is under some pressure, as I have indicated. We are managing that pressure as best we can. There were a couple of occasions over recent months when a number of ambulances were waiting for patients to be taken out of ambulances to be put into the emergency department. We have a protocol in place where generally that is done within half an hour. There is always some time from when an ambulance arrives and the patient is taken in.

That is normally done within 20 minutes or half an hour and generally that has been working at Flinders. On a few occasions that has not happened. I apologised to the patients involved on the occasion of a week or so ago. As I told the media, when you go through and analyse the circumstances in each of the cases the patients probably should not have been taken to that place. That, as I said, was a system error which should not have happened, and I have asked my department to make sure that we do not go through that again.

For example, there was a patient transferred there from Noarlunga Hospital who needed some sort of test—I am not sure whether it was a blood test or another test. They should not have gone through the emergency department: they should have gone directly into the main part of the hospital. There was another patient who should have been taken to the Women's and Children's; that patient was eventually taken to that hospital and the service was provided.

Dr McFetridge interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The shadow minister for health likes to make a lot of noise on this issue: I have yet to hear one positive suggestion as to what the opposition would do if they were in government to address these serious and complex issues.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!