MARGARET TOBIN CENTRE

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Why is the government planning to close 10 acute mental health beds at the Margaret Tobin Centre at Flinders Medical Centre? The South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association wrote to SA Health on 30 April expressing concern about the closure of 10 mental health beds at Flinders Medical Centre. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation have now joined with SASMOA before the Industrial Relations Commission to oppose the mental health bed closure.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:20): I was getting to feel a bit neglected so I thank the member for the question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I feel—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Deprivation syndrome!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: With the member for Waite and the Leader of the Opposition asking me all these questions I feel like a child whose parents have got divorced and the parents are squabbling over them. I love the attention but I just wish they weren't so angry all the time! Anyway, getting to this issue—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —a serious issue—the bed closures were announced as part of the Stepping Up report in 2007. Consultation over them started in 2010. I made a ministerial statement in September last year and I made another statement yesterday, I think, in question time. The stepping up and down approach is designed to provide bed-based support to people who are discharged from the acute unit or directed from the emergency department. This approach minimises admissions to an acute unit or an emergency department by—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: This approach minimises admissions to an acute unit or an emergency department by being admitted to an ICC from the community before a crisis develops. The whole stepping up approach was based on closing down a number of acute beds and opening up a number of subacute beds—more, in fact—and I will go through the figures.

I will go through the bed closures. There will be 17 bed closures in the south altogether including the 10 that the member mentioned at Margaret Tobin. The advantage of this is that we now have those 10 beds available for flex capacity at times of high need. In the past we did not have that. So if things do become busy in the emergency department and there are a lot of patients who need—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Norwood!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: What is this about, Madam Speaker, this inane interjection from the member for Norwood (who is in danger of replacing the member for Bragg as the know-all of this parliament) who just continually interrupts with these silly comments when serious matters are being addressed—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —and then they object when I respond.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: They object when I respond, Madam Speaker.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

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

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order. The minister got up with a diatribe against the opposition before he proceeded to answer the question and now takes great offence to one interjection.

The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order.

Mr Williams: Get over it, minister.

The SPEAKER: He was responding to interjections.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We will go back to some order in this question time. Minister.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Maybe the deputy leader can tell me how many interjections I should put up with before I become annoyed. In relation to bed closures—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: In relation to bed closures, there will be 17 including 10 at the Margaret Tobin but those 10 will be available to be flexed up when there is greater demand, so that is a good thing to have in our system. Let me go through the beds that have already opened in the south. We have opened up 15 intermediate care beds at Noarlunga in 2011, 22 supported accommodation houses have been built in the south with packages of care allocated, there have been 48 social houses built in the south with people supported again with packages of care, about 20—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition, order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I know what I am closing and I can tell you what we are opening which was part of the Stepping Up report of 2007.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Also 20-bed community recovery centres at Noarlunga to reduce admissions to acute units. Overall in the south, in June 2012 there will be 64 open acute beds comprising 20 at Noarlunga, 24 at RGH and 20 at the Margaret Tobin Centre. In addition to the ones that we have opened, we will be opening an eight-bed crisis respite centre in 2013 and this will assist with reducing presentations to ED, and we also have acute crisis intervention services in the south which will soon be expanded to 24 hours, seven days a week.

So, we have opened up more places to help people with mental illness and we have closed down a number of acute beds. That was the entire strategy of the Stepping Up report. I am very surprised if those on the other side have just understood that. That has been out there for five years, supported by organisations like the Mental Health Coalition and others who care about people with mental illness. It is easy to make political points—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —but you have to get the entire story, Madam Speaker.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for MacKillop, you can take a walk again if you are not careful.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! And walk to school early. The member for Mitchell.