Mental Health Beds

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Health. Given that KPMG advised the minister in March that South Australia did not require additional acute mental health beds and the minister advised budget estimates in July that 'we're doing some work at the moment about whether in fact we need some extra acute mental health beds', can the minister advise of the progress of this review?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:52): We will have an announcement shortly. I have to point out, though—and I will recheck the KPMG review—that I think what it would have said is that overall we had a sufficient number of mental health beds but I'm not sure whether they made a distinction between acute and subacute. I would need to double-check that. Certainly it's an issue we're having a look at at the moment, and we expect to make an announcement about that shortly.