Lyell McEwin Hospital

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:34): Again, my question is to the Minister for Health. Given that, in the 24 hours to 6am this morning, the Lyell McEwin emergency department has been operating over capacity for 17 of those hours, how can the minister assert that the Lyell McEwin Hospital is coping with the downgrade of the Modbury Hospital?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:34): Simply because, as I said before, certainly Lyell McEwin is very, very busy, but to suggest that that has anything to do with changes in the Modbury Hospital is a lie. I would say it is a lie because the evidence says the complete opposite. There have in fact been improvements to the performance in the Lyell McEwin Hospital.

While, yes, of course it has been busier than it has ever been before, that is because of the population growth in the northern suburbs and is the reason why this government has spent over $300 million upgrading the Lyell McEwin Hospital, because we realised when we came to office that, with the population growth in the northern suburbs, significant investment was going to be needed to be made in the Lyell McEwin Hospital.

If you look, as I have said before, transfers from Modbury to Lyell McEwin hospitals are relatively few in number. They are certainly well within what we projected them to be and, where patients are transferred, they don't in fact go through the emergency department of the Lyell McEwin Hospital: they are directly admitted. So, if people are suggesting that this has anything to do with changes at the Modbury Hospital, knowing that to be the case, I think you could only draw the conclusion that they are deliberately putting out misinformation.

The second point I would make is that I heard it suggested by one person that this had something to do with people not presenting to the Modbury Hospital and going to the Lyell McEwin Hospital instead. Again, the evidence tells us that that is misinformation because we know that the Modbury Hospital is as busy, with as many presentations, as it was previous to these changes.