Contents
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Commencement
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Address in Reply
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Parliamentary Procedure
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Address in Reply
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Parliamentary Procedure
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Ministerial Statement
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Parliamentary Committees
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Question Time
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Ministerial Statement
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Grievance Debate
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Address in Reply
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Estimates Replies
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Health Review
Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:23): Can the minister outline to the house when he proposes that the Noarlunga emergency department will close?
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): The Noarlunga emergency department is not closing. This is a bit of mischief that the opposition have been spreading around for some time now. It is completely untrue that the Noarlunga emergency department is closing. What is proposed is that the Noarlunga emergency department be relocated to the GP Plus. That is something which we have received a lot of feedback about.
I appreciate that there are a lot of concerns about that from both the community and clinicians, and that the nature of a consultative process is that we have an opportunity to engage with people and they can put their proposals forward. Can I make it quite clear, as I have on many occasions in this place: almost 90 per cent of the presentations at the Noarlunga emergency department are able to seen, treated and discharged without requiring an admission to hospital. We want to protect that. We want to make sure that Noarlunga continues to do the great work it does in basically seeing, treating and discharging without admission to hospital nine in every 10 patients.
Of the remaining patients who are admitted to hospital, half of those aren't admitted to Noarlunga Hospital. They are admitted to the Flinders Medical Centre, which means that they are having their treatment delayed. It is so important that, if you are having an urgent medical incident or have an injury or a serious medical condition, you go to the right place the first time so that your definitive treatment can start as soon as possible. That is what these reforms are all about.
The SPEAKER: The member for Heysen is warned a first and second time, the member for Hammond is called to order and warned a first time, and the member for Hartley is warned a first time. The leader.