Health Budget

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:58): Supplementary: when will the government be in a position—

The SPEAKER: That would be the fourth supplementary—

Mr MARSHALL: Very important issue, sir.

The SPEAKER: —on the same line.

Mr MARSHALL: There could be nothing more important I don't think.

The SPEAKER: Let's just make it a fresh question.

Mr MARSHALL: Okay. When will the government be in a position to tell the parliament how many fewer beds we will have in South Australia as part of the Transforming Health program?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:58): The bed numbers we have is a fluid number. We flex up the number of beds and we flex down the number of beds. It is not a static number that is set in concrete and never changes. Our hospitals increase the number of beds that they need and reduce the number of beds we need. The important thing is that what determines our bed numbers is not me. I do not make a decision, 'This is how many bed numbers we are going to have.' What—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader and the deputy leader—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: It's those death rattles again.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader and the deputy leader, if they move their lips again in the next 25 minutes outside standing orders, will both depart under the dreaded sessional order. The Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: So, the simple fact is that bed numbers are determined by activity. If we get more people presenting at our emergency departments we open up enough beds to make sure we are able to deal with those presentations, and we recruit nursing staff accordingly, because we have to. The bed numbers are not a static thing; they are not set in stone, never, ever to change. Our bed numbers will always be determined by the amount of activity that we have and the number of presentations we get to our emergency departments, and they will continue to happen.