Power Outages, Hospitals

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:15): My question is to the Minister for Health. Can the minister confirm that SA Health has instructed Flinders Medical Centre staff to cancel emergency surgery unless 'life or limb is threatened'?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:15): It's certainly not my understanding. We have postponed elective surgery, but not emergency surgery. Of course, the only elective surgery we will postpone is where it is appropriate to do so. If there is elective surgery that is urgent, we will continue to do that. If patients present for their elective surgery procedures because they haven't received a message, then we won't be sending them home; we will proceed with the elective surgery.

It is just standard practice that when our hospitals anticipate that they are going to be very busy, as we expect in the coming days, we make sure that we have as much capacity in the hospitals as we possibly can. That's why we have taken this precaution.