Patient Care

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:41): Supplementary: given the minister's answer, why is South Australia the only state to have experienced a fall in absolute numbers of elective surgeries, and why has it done so for the last two years?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:41): I am very pleased to get that question from the member for Morphett. The member for Morphett only needs to have a look at the select committee report in the other place, chaired by the Hon. Stephen Wade, which agreed with the government's position and quoted approvingly the position of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons that agreed with the government's position of streaming elective and emergency surgery—an absolutely critical point and a critical reform that we are in the process of making through Transforming Health.

When we have dedicated elective surgery centres at Modbury Hospital, Noarlunga Hospital and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, we will see vast improvements in those elective surgery rates. We have already seen significant improvements as we continue to roll out those reforms. You don't need to take my word for it: speak to the Hon. Stephen Wade. He understands this issue because he was there. He sat on the select committee and he listened to what the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons said and approvingly quotes in that report that it said that we need to streamline our elective and emergency surgeries, and I am confident that we will see improvements.

The other point I should make is that we are not only improving but we are also building additional theatre capacity at Noarlunga Hospital with additional—

Members interjecting:

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

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: —operating theatres, and that is going to further improve the amount of elective surgery that we're going to put through the Noarlunga Hospital. We're going to continue to see improvements. What would those on the other side of the house do?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: They would do nothing. They would preside over a system that was basically stuck in the 1950s where no change had been made. Their vision is barely beyond Florence Nightingale for the way a modern health system should work. They have to catch up with contemporary thinking and not say, 'Let's just take the ambulance chaser approach to health policy.' They have to put in a bit of time and take to the next election an actually serious policy to the people of South Australia so that the people of South Australia can make a reasoned judgement about who has the better health policy. At the moment, what we get from the opposition is nothing other than base ambulance chasing and nothing else.