Waikerie Health Service

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:16): Today, I would like to speak on behalf of my constituents in Waikerie and the surrounding communities who, without being forced to dip into their own fundraising efforts, will be without surgery services at the Waikerie hospital. I was recently contacted by the Waikerie and Districts Health Advisory Council which, I would like to add, does a fantastic job in supporting health services in the town. The HAC have been advised by Country Health SA they do not have adequate funding to address several critical maintenance issues at the Waikerie hospital, that I am advised by the HAC are noncompliant.

The air conditioner in the operating theatre in the Waikerie hospital is no longer operating and needs significant upgrades. There are also issues with noncompliant doors, and the HAC advises me that the cost to fix these two compliance issues is around $140,000. Without these issues being fixed, the Waikerie hospital operating theatre will have to close under any circumstance where the air conditioner would normally be turned on to provide ventilation. Essentially, this would leave the hospital without minor surgery and no operation of the birthing suite over summer, including for emergency caesarian births. When the temperature is warm enough that the air conditioner is required it can no longer operate. This is completely unacceptable.

The closest hospital to Waikerie residents is a good 40 minutes away in either Berri or Loxton. The HAC is also considering paying for it themselves to fix these noncompliance issues, as they know how important it is to have the operating theatre open. This would be money raised by the community and bequeathed to the hospital, and should not be used for general maintenance. That is the state government's responsibility. It appears that the HAC may have no choice. The government's South Australia's Health Care Plan states:

If you need to have elective surgery, you'll want to do so as soon as possible and as close to home as possible…

You may no longer have to travel long distances…

This statement is true in that people want to have any surgery as close to home as possible, but if the state government will not come to the party to fix issues at the Waikerie hospital, patients will have to travel long distances. The Health Care Plan in fact names Waikerie Health Service as a surgery option. By not providing funding to fix noncompliance issues, is the government breaking its own commitment to Country Health? As the state pours millions of dollars into the new RAH, which earned the accolade of the world's third most expensive building and which has nearly doubled in construction costs since it was first commissioned, it appears that regional and country hospitals are now being left to suffer. It begs the question as to how many other regional and country hospitals have noncompliance issues.

Country Health SA has said to the Waikerie HAC that there is $150 million worth of noncompliant issues in country hospitals here in South Australia, yet the government has allocated $15 million towards those issues in the last financial year. It is just outrageous that it can actually allow these regional hospitals to go into a state of disrepair, turning a blind eye to regional healthcare services. Again, it begs the question as to how many other regional country hospitals have noncompliance issues. I know the Minister for Health will get a copy of this speech, and I urge him to look more closely into the issue than his department has, and not leave the burden of fixing maintenance and noncompliant issues at Waikerie with the HAC.

As I said, the $150 million backlog in maintenance to country hospitals in South Australia is a blight on Country Health here in South Australia. It is also a disgrace to see that they were allocated only $15 million in the budget for this financial year. Again, obstetrics, emergency caesareans, elective surgeries, accommodating visiting surgeons, it makes the theatre redundant. Until compliance issues are rectified Waikerie is either without an operating theatre or operating noncompliant.

It is totally unreasonable that, for the sake of $140,000, the minister and his department will turn a blind eye to a hospital that is critical to that community and to neighbouring communities in the Riverland. Waikerie HAC has done a great job; it is currently trying to see how it can use community funds, bequeathed funds, that have been left to the HAC, but it really is breaking protocol in the government's own bottom line that it must maintain the hospitals to a satisfactory standard.