Country Health SA

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:36): I wish to raise some issues to do with Country Health. I have two hospitals in my electorate: South Coast District Hospital at Victor Harbor and the Kingscote Hospital on Kangaroo Island. There is going to be a lot come out on the south coast in the New Year. Today I want to turn my attention to Kangaroo Island. I have a health advisory council there who have had to go to the press to put out media statements over the failure by Country Health SA not to deliver the goods in respect of much-needed equipment and roles within the hospital. That is a serious matter. Mr Darren Keenan is the HAC presiding member over there, and I quote:

We are not asking for…money. We are not asking for a new service. We are simply asking that Country Health SA deliver on the service that they have identified as necessary and subsequently budgeted for…

What the issue is about is operations in the theatre of the hospital. Specialists go over to do surgery and return to the mainland. These surgeries have been reduced over a period of time. Last Friday is an example; another surgeon went over, as opposed to the orthopaedic surgeons. They had five operations scheduled and had to pull out after three because the sterilising unit is not working properly and they could not sterilise their gear. What this is leading to is complete inconvenience for the people of Kangaroo Island, constituents who want to have surgery there. It is a nightmare trying to get to the mainland to have these things done, and it has gone on for a long time.

Country Health, under the acting CEO, Rebecca Graham, and under the regional director, Debbie Martin, have failed to address the HACs issues, they have failed to do the best thing. What Country Health is doing is winding down the activities of the hospital in an attempt to save money, and they are not servicing those people in regional communities who need it. It is shameful. The acting CEO of Country Health has refused to meet with the HAC. The HAC are now out there.

I have another letter from another board member of the HAC, Mr Ian Kent, which I am not going to have time to go through. In today's InDaily—members may wish to read it—Mr Keenan's comments were posted. It is an extremely ridiculous and stupid way of doing business by Country Health. They are failing the people of South Australia, but in this case they are failing the people of Kangaroo Island. I quote again Mr Keenan:

We are frustrated, we have had enough. People are having their quality of life affected for no obvious reason. Again I iterate, we are not asking for money, we are not asking for a new service, just delivery of the service that Country Health South Australia both justified and budgeted for deliver on Kangaroo Island.

The only thing we need to solve this problem is a signature on a piece of paper. For Kangaroo Island residents that would be Transforming Health.

They have tried to have a meeting with the acting CEO, but she will not do it.

The minister needs to grab hold of this, give it a good shake and instruct Country Health to sort it out and be a minister for once instead of having his bureaucrats tell him what to do. It is simply inexcusable that this is happening when the procedures and operations that have been done at the hospital over there have been successful over decades. It is also making it difficult for staff and doctors in the hospital who need to have these operations take place so they can keep their practices and training up. It is not good enough. It is a sad indictment, as I say, on Country Health and heads should roll over it.

In the time I have left to me, it used to be common practice in this place when I came in that members would wish each other the compliments of the season, a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I extend that to all members present. I think it is important.

But can I just say how disappointed and saddened I was by the comments made by the member for Waite last night. It was inexcusable and it is disappointing. I am a person who supported him to the hilt in his former roles and he has let us down badly. He has let a number of my colleagues down badly and to make a sad, vitriolic, bitter and twisted attack last night, I thought, showed the depth of his character. It is a sad day. Let him go about his business. The electorate will sort that out. Why he had to come in here and vent his spleen like that defies me.