Health Review

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (16:43): A supplementary question: how can the minister guarantee the safety and health of those people who now have to travel significantly longer distances to receive emergency treatment?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (16:43): Simply because, contrary to conventional wisdom, going to the closest hospital is not necessarily going to the best hospital. It is more important—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: The Leader of the Opposition thinks he knows more about the health system than the dozens of nurses and doctors and allied health professionals who have been looking at the system. But believe me, the Leader of the Opposition doesn't know anything about health; he had nothing to say about health at the last state election and was pulled up on it by the secretary of the nurses federation. But nonetheless—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister will return to the substance of the question, which is not the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned a first time. Minister.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Mr Speaker, I am going on what the doctors and nurses and allied health people who have been looking at our health system and the way it is currently configured have been saying to me, and that is that going to the closest hospital is not necessarily going to the best hospital and it is more important to go to the correct hospital—the hospital that has the clinicians and the services to support those clinicians to ensure you get the proper and best treatment. What happens at the moment when someone goes to an emergency department that is not able to look after them is they get assessed—

Dr McFetridge interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morphett is warned for the first time.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: —a decision is made and then they are transferred, and that means a delay in their care—a much longer delay in their care than they might have if they had stayed in an ambulance and been taken to the correct emergency department in the first place. It is far more important to go to the correct emergency department if you have a life-threatening illness than to go necessarily to the closest. We have to make sure we have some emergency departments that have the 24/7 cover so, regardless of what hour of the day or night you present, if you've got a life-threatening illness, they are going to be able to look after you.