Ambulance Services

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (14:09): Again, my next question is to the Minister for Health. On 24 February, the minister told the house, in answer to a question about who will pay ambulance transfers from Noarlunga's walk-in clinic to the Flinders Medical Centre, that it is inter-hospital transport and in the normal course of events that would be covered by SA Health.

In reality, an inter-hospital transfer is only covered where a patient has been admitted to the hospital. So, what is the circumstance when somebody turns up at the ED of, say, Noarlunga after it's been downgraded and then taken by ambulance from there to Flinders Medical Centre when they haven't been admitted to Noarlunga Hospital?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:10): Well, let's be quite clear: that's happening at the moment and has for a long time. People have been transferred by ambulance from Noarlunga Hospital to the Flinders Medical Centre. There's nothing new in that, that's something that has always happened.

I will double-check, but I'm pretty sure that when someone is transferred in such circumstances they are not charged for that ambulance trip, that that is a cost which is borne by SA Health and will continue to be borne. As I say, there's nothing new in that. People are transferred by ambulance from emergency departments every day in South Australia, including from country hospitals and from emergency departments that aren't able to give them the appropriate treatment. That's something that is the case at the moment; there's nothing new in that.