Grievance Debate

Noarlunga Hospital Emergency Department

Mr WINGARD (Mitchell) (15:08): I rise today to talk about the Noarlunga Hospital and the significant downgrade the hospital is facing under Labor's health cuts plan. Earlier today I tabled a petition with over 1,300 signatures calling on the government to maintain existing services at the Noarlunga emergency department. The petition also called on the government to take immediate action to ensure that changes to the Noarlunga emergency department, proposed under the Transforming Health plan are not implemented.

In addition to the petitions tabled in parliament today, a further 2,800 people have signed an online petition against the emergency department downgrade at Noarlunga Hospital. While Labor may have backed away from closing the emergency department at Noarlunga completely, under Labor's health cuts plan, Noarlunga Hospital's emergency department will still suffer a double downgrade.

Under the plan, patients with life-threatening emergencies will be diverted away from the emergency departments at Noarlunga Hospital, TQEH and Modbury. In the case of Noarlunga, there is a second downgrade that will only apply to Noarlunga. People will be diverted away from the Noarlunga emergency department if it is likely that they are going to need to be hospitalised. The government says that between 7 per cent and 8 per cent of the patients currently seen at the Noarlunga ED will need to be diverted away from Noarlunga, but health professionals suggest that up to 40 per cent of patients could bypass Noarlunga on those criteria.

This is a recipe for dangerous confusion amongst patients. Ambulances alone will not be able to fix the confusion—70 per cent of patients arrive at emergency departments under their own steam. Southern residents will be put in a position where they have to self-diagnose. They will need to determine if they are experiencing an emergency. If patients are likely to be admitted to hospital they should not present at Noarlunga Hospital at all. The new Noarlunga Hospital's ambulance station was not designed to take this extra load and there are no plans to expand it.

After the double downgrade, Noarlunga Hospital's emergency department will be the lowest standard emergency department in metropolitan Adelaide. The data in the government's own business case for Transforming Health shows that the average total travel time for Noarlunga patients will more than double from 11 minutes to 24 minutes. In an emergency, those 13 minutes could be the difference between life and death.

The Weatherill Labor government has failed to release any data on patient flows, failed to release planned budget savings, and failed to conduct a genuine consultation process with the people of the south. People living in the southern suburbs will be forced to travel to the Flinders Medical Centre to access a fully functioning emergency department, an emergency department that has repeatedly had ambulance ramping over the past four years. The southern suburbs have been further targeted with the closure of the Repat Hospital at Daw Park, resulting in 22 per cent fewer general hospital beds in the southern region.

Waiting times for elective surgery at Noarlunga Hospital have more than doubled in the four years to 2013. Some Flinders outpatient clinics have waits of more than three years. With the Repat gone, the waits will get even longer. The efforts of the local community to express their concerns have been relentless, and it is clear the government are completely out of touch with community expectations when it comes to health care. In this context, I pay tribute to the work of Maureen and Kevin Hamilton and Mayor Rosenberg. The people of the south do not deserve second-class health care, but that is exactly what they are getting under Labor's health cuts plan.

On 4 May, I attended a Channel 7 health forum focused on services in the south. The minister and shadow minister for health were present, together with the local Labor members, with the notable absence of the member for Mawson. The member for Kaurna has claimed to have saved the Noarlunga Hospital. While it is true that the original plan was even worse than the current plan, the people of the southern suburbs need their Labor members to doggedly pursue their interests rather than settle for second best. Under Transforming Health, the south has not been forgotten; it has been targeted, disregarded and downgraded.