FLINDERS MEDICAL CENTRE

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Is the instruction that there be no ramping at the Flinders Medical Centre emergency department regardless of patient inflows or the availability of inpatient beds in the main hospital consistent with patient safety and the findings of the Coroner? Dr Di King has stated in a letter in regard to an instruction from officials to guarantee ambulance offload at all times that, 'For reasons of patient safety I was morally unable to do that, as I discussed with them on many occasions.'

In addition, the Coroner found that on 14 December 2004 the death of Louise Kay O'Neill was partly attributable to the patient having been left to lie on a barouche while awaiting attention without regular or documented observations. The inquest heard expert opinion that these problems were 'a systems issue that most likely arose over emergency department overcrowding'.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:32): I thank the member for his question. There are two issues that I really need to address in answering this question. The first is the claim that there was an instruction given. He bases that claim on a letter which he has got a copy of which was sent by Di King to her colleagues when she resigned, and she made claims about a conversation that was held with management from the hospital, so what you have got is one version of a conversation to which there were two parties.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: What you have got is one version of—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Chapman: You said it was policy on radio!

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for MacKillop, order! Minister.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The word I was focusing on was the word 'instruction'. I said we have got one version of a conversation so I just put that on the table: there is one version of a conversation on which you are developing your argument.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It is an argument. I made the point in relation to earlier answers that there is a policy in place and that staff are expected to comply with that policy. To say that is an instruction and to say compliance with a policy which she helped develop, by an executive which she is a member of—that is the point—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Di King was a member of the executive which developed the policy so it's obvious that she should comply with a policy that she had developed. The second part of the question is in relation to the Coroner's inquest, and I think it is interesting that the member raised this particular Coroner's report because the Coroner's report came down on 14 December 2004. However, the patient who was being looked into died at Flinders Medical Centre on 17 December 2000—of course, when the other side was in government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: When the other side was in government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I'm not surprised that there were problems in the emergency department when the other side was in government. There was headline after headline about the travesty of management by that government—that party over there—when they were in government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: This government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order, member for Stuart.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Madam Speaker, clearly, clearly debate, and yelling, and redness.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! You obviously grew up in a very small household, member for Stuart, and have not been in family arguments before.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I will give you and the house an undertaking that I won't yell if they don't yell, Madam Speaker. How's that?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I won't yell if you don't yell; how's that, Madam Speaker?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: The member for Stuart is interjecting; he knows that's out of order.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, Minister for Transport. We will get back to the minister's response.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I digressed. So, the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The Coroner investigated a death which occurred when Dean Brown was the minister for health in the year 2000, and the—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The Coroner found that there were not sufficient resources applied to the emergency department. He also noted that overcrowding had diminished since that time (which was 2000 and this is in 2004, so after we got into government) and delays in moving patients through emergency department and into the wards had improved. He also recommended—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: He also recommended—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for MacKillop, leave the chamber for 10 minutes.

The honourable member for MacKillop having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: He also recommended that the minister and the department continue the program of improvement and resources, both human and infrastructure. Well, let me tell the house what we have done. We have increased the capacity at the Flinders Medical Centre by 10,000 patients a year. It was at 60,000, and it is now up to 70,000. The number of patients a year is currently tracking at around about 61,000 to 62,000, so there is extra capacity at the hospital.

We have doubled the number of doctors who work in that hospital in the 10 years that we have been in government. We have also increased quite dramatically the amount of direct resources put into ED to provide extra support, including establishing an acute medical unit. In fact, over the last three years the number of patients going to the emergency department at Flinders Medical Centre has actually declined, so there is 2 per cent fewer patients in 2010-11 than there were in 2007-10; so, fewer patients, more resources, more capacity. We have done what the Coroner said ought to have been done, and we are doing that right across the board, right across our emergency departments because we believe in public health and we are investing heavily in it. There is an issue—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Out comes the Leader of the Opposition. As I pointed out to the house on a number of occasions, the number of patients who are seen within the recommended time is 72 per cent across the board in South Australia, a record high for a state, above the national average, and at Flinders Medical Centre is sitting just under that at 71 per cent. In fact, right across the metropolitan area 93 per cent of patients are seen within two hours under all circumstances, and that is the best in Australia, the very, very best in Australia.

I am proud of what we have done in the emergency departments. I am proud of our investments in health. There is an issue at Flinders Medical Centre and I am determined to get on top of it. I am sorry that people are unhappy about some of the personality issues involved, but there is obviously an issue between the ambulance service and the emergency department which we need to address, and we are addressing it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Torrens.