Paediatric Hospital Services

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (14:35): My question is also to the Minister for Health. Minister, what is being done to improve paediatric ear, nose and throat services for children in northern Adelaide?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:35): I thank the member for Little Para for his question. The Lyell McEwin Hospital, of course, is in the electorate of Little Para, and the member for Little Para has spoken to me on many occasions about services for children at the Lyell McEwin Hospital.

I want to work together with doctors from the Modbury Hospital to provide paediatric ENT services at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. Nevertheless, our state needs doctors who are prepared to offer their services where the patient needs them, not where it happens to be convenient. SA Health believes that the doctors' concerns have been addressed. In February, we wrote to the industrial bodies representing the doctors involved to work through how ENT services can be offered where they are needed.

We currently have a very good surgeon providing paediatric ENT services at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. The Lyell McEwin Hospital also provides surgical services for children, including paediatric, dental and orthopaedics. Children as young as three years old are provided with surgical care at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. However, the current service is limited to one part-time ENT surgeon, who needs to be supported by colleagues who previously have provided paediatric ENT surgical services at Modbury Hospital. That service needs to be expanded so that families living in the northern suburbs can access ENT services for their children at the Lyell McEwin Hospital.

SA Health is currently working to develop paediatric ENT services at the Lyell McEwin. If we do not have cooperation from the surgeons, I am considering three other options to ensure that ENT services are available at the Lyell McEwin Hospital for people living in our northern suburbs. These include using private sector ENT services, ENT services provided through an outreach agreement with the Women's and Children's Hospital, or consolidating all the ENT services at the Women's and Children's Hospital.

The government is dedicated to working with the ENT surgeons to ensure that any safety concerns are fully addressed. There must be acknowledgement, however, from the ENT surgeons that the Lyell McEwin, with its new women's and children's health hub, will be the focus of paediatric services in our northern suburbs.