Hospital Beds

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:23): In the increased hospital bed measure that the minister announced on 6 September, why do health department documents suggest that there actually was a net decrease of one bed?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:23): It's because of a misunderstanding about how many beds there would be in the new short-stay facility that would take the place of C3 ward. The misunderstanding was that that would consist of six beds, whereas it will consist, in fact, of seven. Once everything has played out, once all the pieces have been moved, there will be in Central Adelaide Local Health Network no increase or decrease; they'll balance each other out. There will be four additional mental health beds in the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network at the Lyell McEwin. There will be six short stay new mental health beds at the Flinders Medical Centre, and there are, I think, at the moment 12 new mental health beds at Berri and Whyalla, and there will be another six mental health beds coming online next year at the Mount Gambier Hospital.