Hospital Waiting Times

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): A supplementary, sir: how can the minister possibly claim that our hospital emergency departments are improving when all six of the South Australian metropolitan hospitals in the National Health Performance Authority slipped in the national rankings this year—slipped?

The SPEAKER: I suggest that that really isn't a question: it's debate, but the minister may wish to respond to it.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:11): I can't really add much more to what I said yesterday. I have always acknowledged that we do have issues. When a person needs to be admitted into an acute bed, yes, they often can be left waiting for unacceptably long periods in an emergency department, and that is particularly the case in mental health.

That's why I am determined to see changes to the way mental health patients are treated, to make sure that they are not left waiting for sometimes days at a time to be admitted into an acute mental health bed. It is something I am determined to fix. I have always been up-front about that fact. I have also been up-front that we do need to improve our ability to have people quickly admitted, when the decision is made, into a hospital bed rather than being left waiting in the emergency departments. The issue we have is not in fact with our emergency departments. Our emergency departments in fact work extremely well. The issues that we have—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: The Leader of the Opposition just does not understand nor does he have any interest in our health system and in our hospital system. He is nothing but a political ambulance chaser and—

Mr PISONI: Point of order, sir: the minister is not responsible for the Leader of the Opposition.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Sir, you did indicate that, given the argumentative nature of the question, I would be given some latitude. I have been responding to the inane interjections of the opposition.

Mr PISONI: Point of order, sir: it is also disorderly to respond to interjections.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the member for Unley's point of order. Minister.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I have always acknowledged that we do need our system working better, and that's why I've engaged the clinicians. That's why I've gone out to talk to the doctors, the nurses, the allied health professionals, who are actually at the coalface, who understand how our hospitals need to improve, who understand what we need to do to have a better running health system so that we don't have people waiting unacceptably long periods in emergency departments to be admitted.

There is a whole range of things which they are suggesting we need to look at. One is we need to look at how we make our hospitals work on a seven-day basis. People present to our hospitals seven days a week, 24 hours a day but, in many respects, our hospitals are geared towards business hours Monday to Friday. We need to look at how we can make our hospitals more—

Mr Marshall: Are you kidding?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Don't pretend you know a thing about hospitals, you idiot. You do not know a single thing.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Health is called to order. The Minister for Health will now withdraw and apologise to the person he referred to as 'you idiot' which, on the face of it, was me, not that I take offence.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I do withdraw and apologise to the Leader of the Opposition for my remarks. However, I do maintain that we are looking at how we can improve our hospital system. The best people who are going to be able to provide advice to the government and advice to me as Minister for Health on how we can make our hospitals work better are not those who sit opposite and certainly not the Leader of the Opposition. They are our doctors, they are our nurses, they are our allied health professionals who day by day deal with these sorts of issues and who I am confident can help us transform the South Australian health system to deal with these sorts of issues.

Mr MARSHALL: Supplementary.

The SPEAKER: Before we get to the supplementary, it may seem long ago and far away, but I call to order the members for Chaffey, Unley, Hartley, Heysen and the deputy leader. Supplementary, leader.