Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:05): My question is to the Minister for Health. How many Queen Elizabeth Hospital patients have had their elective surgery postponed or cancelled in the last month as a consequence of the breakdown of the hospital's air conditioning, and does the government have any plans to provide compensation to these patients?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:05): No, we don't normally compensate patients and it is not unusual, unfortunately, for patients to have their elective surgery cancelled. It is quite a frequent occurrence, and it is something which, through the changes with Transforming Health, we are proposing to fix.

Mr Goldsworthy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kavel is called to order.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: We have a plan to improve the—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is called to order.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: We have a plan to improve elective surgery so that patients do not wait as long for elective surgery and there are far fewer cancellations of elective surgery.

With regard to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, my advice is that there has been a problem with the air conditioning in the operating suites because of the high humidity that we have been experiencing in Adelaide. These are very specialised air conditioning systems for operating theatres and they are not operating well at the moment because of the high humidity. It is something technicians are attempting to fix.

I do not have the exact number in front of me but I know most recently the number was roughly 100 cancellations of elective surgery. The operating theatre that deals with emergency surgery is still operating, so emergency surgery is happening at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and urgent elective surgery is being transferred to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.