Health Review

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister release the past morbidity and mortality rates for the Flinders Medical Centre and the Noarlunga emergency department to back up the minister's recent statements that more patients will die if they present to the Noarlunga emergency department?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:33): I'll have a look and see what data's on the internet, but we have all the data the clinicians had available to them when they were providing me with advice. That's been put on the internet, and I'm more than happy to investigate that.

Let's be quite clear about what I am saying about the Noarlunga emergency department. What I'm saying is that it is so important, if you have a life-threatening condition, to go to the Flinders Medical Centre in the first instance. We don't want people going and presenting to the Noarlunga emergency department if they have a serious life-threatening illness or injury that requires that sort of specialised attention that can only be had at the Flinders Medical Centre. If you go to the Noarlunga emergency department in the first instance you are having your care compromised.

That is something everyone accepts; it is something that is accepted by the clinicians who work in the Noarlunga emergency department because they know—not because they lack the skills or expertise but simply because in the way that the Noarlunga Hospital was established and the facilities it has there is only a certain amount that can be done.

For the vast majority of presentations at the Noarlunga Hospital, those people are able to be seen, treated and discharged without an admission. That is a very important role that the Noarlunga ED plays and that is a role we want to see it continue to play. With regard to the data, I am more than happy to have a look, see what we have put on the internet and see if there is any other data that has so far not been made available. However, as far as I am concerned, my understanding is that all the data that was made available to the clinicians who are advising me on Transforming Health was put up on the internet late last year.