FLINDERS MEDICAL CENTRE

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is again to the Minister for Health and Ageing. If Dr Di King could not 'guarantee ambulance offload at all times for reasons of patient and staff safety', how can the current acting manager guarantee this?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:26): Once again, these questions are based on argument and assumption. What we want to do is to make—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: What we want to do in all of our hospitals is to maximise the care that is given to our patients, and the—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Sorry?

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Unley, order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I don't know what that inane interjection was about anyway. What we are trying to do is to make sure that our hospital systems generally, and our emergency departments in particular, provide the best possible care to patients. There might be a disagreement amongst emergency doctors about how you do that, but we have to have a system-wide approach; we cannot just have individual units within the system developing their own policies in isolation from other bits. What I have said in relation to Flinders is that there is a clear policy in place, which everybody in that hospital is expected to comply with.

In relation to all of the other hospitals we have, these issues do not arise. All of the hospitals at times have peak demand, when the cubicles in the emergency department are full. In each of the other hospitals, as I understand it, the patients are taken in and looked after in waiting areas. There is a triage process in place. Those in the most need, of course, are moved through. Category 1 patients are always seen immediately; other categories are seen within time frames that are set. Sometimes patients do have to wait, but there are provisions in place to ensure that they can be looked after. There is a capacity to provide oxygen and other assistance; nurses and others can look after them. Sometimes paramedics look after patients within the hospital waiting area, and there are protocols in place around that. So, there are a whole range of back-up systems in place to make it work.

The difference between all of the other hospitals and Flinders is that there is a lack of agreement about how to do that, if I can put it in those terms. There is clearly an issue between the ambulance service and the emergency department. I am not judging how that should be resolved; all I am saying is that it needs to be resolved. It is my duty as the minister to make sure it is resolved, and that is why I have an independent group to have a look at and to make some recommendations and, hopefully, they can sort out the problems. I have absolute confidence that the current acting leader of the emergency department will do her very best to make sure these policies are complied with.