KEITH AND DISTRICT HOSPITAL

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. If the patient who presented at the Keith hospital on 28 April had presented to the hospital prior to the government's funding cut, would the country hospital have been able to admit him immediately as a public patient?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (15:00): Well, it is a hypothetical question. The facts are these—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: One can make politics about almost anything, but to make political pointscoring, as the member for Norwood just did, on the basis of a man's death I think is just absolutely reprehensible. Madam Speaker—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs Redmond: That's an outrageous slur.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It is outrageous; it is not a slur though, Leader of the Opposition. I gave a comprehensive assessment of the issues, and now I am being asked a hypothetical question. You would have to ask the hospital itself what its policies are; we do not run the Keith hospital. What we do, though, is ensure that they have adequate funding—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —to run the emergency department so if somebody is in urgent need they can be looked after in the emergency department. If the emergency department doctors decide that they need to be admitted, then they can be admitted, public or private: that is what we pay for. The other arrangements the hospital has, of course, are up to them to determine.

The reality is that this patient who presented to the hospital was assessed as not being in an urgent category; it was not an emergency at the time. Several minutes later when he got to the car park, it was. He was then taken to the emergency department. I am not sure whether or not he was admitted, but he was certainly being looked after in the emergency department while the Royal Flying Doctor Service, as I understand, was called, and they took him to Flinders.

To try to make a connection between the policies of the Keith hospital and whether or not they charge fees to public patients and any subsequent events in his treatment, I think, is spurious. The reality is that the gentleman, unfortunately, sadly died in Flinders Medical Centre, having been there for two to three nights, after two operations, from a very serious illness. That was not picked up by the original diagnosis by the GP—and nor would you expect it to be; it is not the sort of thing you would expect any country hospital to be able to properly treat. I would say to the opposition: just be a bit careful where you go with these kinds of suggestions.