Health Review

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:24): Supplementary, Mr Speaker: will the upgrade enable Flinders emergency department to handle the estimated 22,000 extra patients, with 7,300 presenting by ambulances, including 1,680 mental health patients, to cope with the extra number?

The SPEAKER: Before the minister answers, that's not a supplementary question. It didn't arise from the previous question or answer. Moreover, the member for Morphett just merely read it off a sheet, so it couldn't have been spontaneous.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir. I may have misheard, but I don't recall the member for Morphett saying 'supplementary', and you called him without asking for a supplementary.

The SPEAKER: Oh, no; he did say it was a supplementary, yes. Minister.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:25): Mr Speaker, it would be good if the member for Morphett and the Leader of the Opposition talked to each other about their questions, because then the questions might actually agree with each other, because, of course, the member for Morphett I think just said there's going to be 22,000 extra presentations to the Flinders Medical Centre, which is completely false—completely and utterly false. The Leader of the Opposition had a quite different number at the beginning of question time. Maybe if the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Morphett talk to each other about their questions at least there might be—

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: I shall uphold the member for Stuart's point of order if I anticipate that the Minister for Health is digressing from the—

Mr van Holst Pellekaan: And debating.

The SPEAKER: —and debating. I uphold both those points of order. To your text, Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Firstly, there will not be 22,000 extra presentations to the Flinders Medical Centre. As I have said before—and maybe the member for Morphett wasn't paying attention, maybe he was asleep—I went through this. The number of extra presentations to the Flinders Medical Centre—

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Health will not insult members of the opposition by saying that perhaps they were asleep. I warn him for the first time.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Sorry, sir. The total number of all the presentations to the Noarlunga emergency department—the overwhelming majority of them—do not require admission to hospital and will be able to continue to be seen at the Noarlunga emergency department in the vicinity of 90 per cent. So, for 90 per cent of all the presentations at the Noarlunga emergency department at the moment nothing will change. They will continue to go to Noarlunga emergency department and they will be seen quicker and more effectively than they will under the current arrangements. So, it is completely false to suggest that every presentation at the Noarlunga emergency department will have to go up to the Flinders Medical Centre, and the member for Morphett knows it.