Modbury Hospital

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): Thank you very much, sir. My question is to the Minister for Health. Does the minister accept responsibility for the downgrading of Modbury Hospital services in the face of clear advice by local clinicians that it is dangerous?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:17): Firstly, I completely reject any notion that any health service is being downgraded. When you are dealing with more patients—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: When you have more patients going through a hospital, that is an upgrade: that is not a downgrade. It means we will be delivering more services to the people of the north and north-east. This is an upgrade to Modbury Hospital because it means that people in the north will be able to get the services they need.

I said before that almost half of residents of the northern and north-eastern suburbs can't get the treatment they need in their local area. They have to go to other hospitals to be able to get the treatment that they need, unlike other suburbs of Adelaide in the south and in central Adelaide where patients have a much smaller chance of having to move outside of the local area to get the care they need.

What we need and what we are doing is building up services in the north so that people and patients who live in the northern suburbs can get the treatment that they need, close to where they live. It is inequitable that there is such a disparity between patients in the north and patients in the rest of Adelaide who need to travel.

In regard to doctors, of course there are doctors who, for whatever reasons, have concerns and have taken issue with it, but I can tell you now there are far, far more doctors who support the changes we are making. Let us not forget that it is not just doctors; it is nurses as well, and allied health professionals. The opposition thinks that our health system is only about doctors; well, it is not. There are nurses and there are allied health professionals who take responsibility for day-to-day care, and I know that the overwhelming majority of the health professionals who work in our system support the changes that we are making.

We will not allow the opposition to scaremonger and, in fact, put out misinformation and threaten people. Their behaviour has been absolutely disgusting in terms of telling people that hospitals are going to close, telling them not to go to a certain emergency department. It is the most reckless behaviour I have ever seen from an opposition in 20 years; in the 20 years I have been in this parliament I have never seen such reckless behaviour from any opposition. It is disgusting, but we will make these changes.

The SPEAKER: It appears the minister has—

Mr PISONI: Point of order. I do believe that was debate, sir.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. Before we have the next question I call to order the members for Davenport and Morialta; I warn for the first time the members for Kavel, Mount Gambier and Hartley and the deputy leader; and I warn for the second and final time the leader and deputy leader and the members for Schubert, Mount Gambier, Kavel and Chaffey.