FLINDERS MEDICAL CENTRE

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Will the minister confirm that Flinders Medical Centre staff have ordered ramping ambulance drivers to turn off their engines whilst waiting; hence, during heatwave conditions, such as the 40º day on Monday, sick and injured patients are being left with no air conditioning whilst ramped outside the emergency department?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:21): Not that I am aware. The issue with handover of patients from ambulance to hospital staff is a particular issue for the Flinders Medical Centre emergency department. I was down there about a fortnight ago, and I had an opportunity to have discussions with the administrators of that hospital about those particular issues.

I have to say that it is not an issue, in terms of delays in the transfer of the care of a patient from an ambulance over to the hospital emergency department, that is isolated to just the Flinders Medical Centre. It becomes an issue in the Flinders Medical Centre because the size of the department is relatively small, so what happens is there tends to be delays because patients have to be kept in the ambulance before they are able to be transferred because there is not the holding room in the emergency department for their treatment. But it is something I am working very closely with the emergency department and the Flinders Medical Centre to have resolved.

Of course, what happens in a hospital with these delays is that often there are issues further up the chain. If there is an issue with finding a bed to admit someone, if there is a blockage somewhere up in the hospital, that of course has repercussions right throughout the department and the hospital. We are working very closely to find new and better ways to expedite the treatment of patients and to expedite their movement through the various departments of the hospital to try to get them either discharged or admitted into the hospital as quickly as possible to try to resolve these issues.

As to the specific issue, it is not something I am aware of; it is certainly not something I recall being advised about. But in terms of the issue of the transfer of patients into the care of the emergency department, we are working very closely with both the ambulance service and the emergency department of the Flinders Medical Centre to try to resolve those issues.