HEALTH CHAT

Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (14:57): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Can the minister inform the house what feedback was received from South Australians in the first ever Health Chat conducted last week?

An honourable member: They couldn't get through!

The SPEAKER: Order!

An honourable member: You put them on hold.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:57): Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I thank the member for Ramsay for this important question. Last Tuesday evening, as many members and many of the public would know, the health system invited South Australians to phone in and speak directly to me as the minister and to senior members of the Department of Health bureaucracy and the leaders of the various hospital systems, including the CE of health.

We asked people to talk to us about their issues in relation to the health system, and I thought it was good for two reasons—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for MacKillop, if I talk to you again, you will leave.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: So, Madam Speaker, I invited members of the public to ring in. I thought it was good for my official senior level people and me, as the minister, to hear directly what people in the community think. Obviously, as a member of parliament I speak to my constituents but sometimes senior officials, I think, and all of us deal with statistics, policies and platforms and it is good to hear what real people think about the system.

I was really pleased with the outcomes of that response, and, thanks to the terrific publicity (particularly one of the television channels which ran it halfway through its news bulletin which caused something of a spike), we did receive 617 phone calls to the hotline during the two-hour period. There were more phone calls than we could deal with, so I do apologise—as I did last week—to those who called. We did, in fact, field about 110 of those who called and we talked—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I said that we spoke to 110 people.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I just said it. We got to talk to 110 callers out of the—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I just said all that. Madam Speaker—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Anyway, I will leave it up to the shadow minister if he wants to ask any questions later.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Waite, behave or you will leave.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Transport also, order! You will allow the minister to answer this important question.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Thank you. I actually provided the answer to the question he was interjecting on, so he wasn't listening. There were 600 and something calls; 110 of those were answered, and I apologised at the time to those who were not able to get through. But it was interesting to hear the people talking, and I spoke to a good number of people and heard about their personal experiences with the health system.

Most of the callers I spoke to wanted to talk to me about personal issues they had about either members of their family or themselves. I am advised that about 30 per cent of the callers were from the country—so that is about roughly the proportion you would expect. Mental health accounted for about 10 per cent of calls—which is probably the appropriate percentage—and about 30 per cent of the calls related to medical issues, either of the caller or a family member, and I must say that most of the people I got to speak to were in that category.

Common issues raised included elective surgery, outpatient services, hospital redevelopments, health employment, the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme, availability of doctors in country communities, and dental services. Calls about workforce issues included questions about processes and work opportunities for the newly qualified and those trained overseas. Calls about dental services included questions about sterilisation of equipment and infection control, financial assistance to travel to Adelaide for oral surgery, and concerns with access to dental services in the Far North.

We also received a handful of ideas, including the suggestions of charging a gap fee for emergency department patients and improving signage on toilet doors in hospitals. About half the callers requested a follow-up, and staff within both my office and the department are working on that. Of the callers who did not require a response, about 20 per cent commented positively about the health care they had received or the system in general, while about 12.5 per cent provided negative feedback. Most callers said they were pleased to have the opportunity to speak directly with the people who run South Australia's health system.

I believe it was a worthwhile exercise, and we do plan to conduct it regularly; we will do it again in a few months' time to make sure South Australians have more opportunities. I give an undertaking: we will have more telephone lines, and we will do it over a longer period of time so that more people can get through.