HEALTH BUDGET

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Can the minister confirm that one of his first—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

Dr McFETRIDGE: I will just repeat that.

The SPEAKER: Was that the member for Chaffey interjecting?

Dr McFETRIDGE: No, he was assisting, sir. I will just start again.

The SPEAKER: I warn him for the second time.

Dr McFETRIDGE: He was provoked, I am sure, by the other side, sir. Can the minister confirm that one of his first directives as minister was to order the end of the medical imaging IT project ESMI without receiving advice from his department, and did the minister have to reverse his decision when the department advised him it would cost $16 million if he proceeded with his directive?

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) (15:01): I will need to check my records but, certainly, when I took over the portfolio of Health, I had concerns about the scope of the IT projects which the Department for Health was undertaking. We've had significant investments: Oracle, of course, and EPAS. These are enormous reform tasks. The department also has IT projects with EPLIS and ESMI, and I had concerns about how much the department was biting off and whether it was a good idea for us to continue to pursue all those IT projects.

Certainly, I sought advice from my department about rescoping those projects and the potential to do so. My recollection is that the department's advice was that, because there had been certain recommendations from the Coroner about the Women's and Children's Hospital and their digital imagery or lack thereof, it would not be a good idea for us not to proceed with that—that was the advice I got. I don't recall making any directive not to proceed with any IT projects but, certainly, I did seek information from the department and queried the scope of the IT projects we were undertaking, which I think was only prudent.