House of Assembly Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2) 53 2 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Country Health Services Country Health Services Mr GRIFFITHS House of Assembly Goyder Country Health Services Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (15:13): My question is to the Minister for Health. Does the minister accept that Dr George Kokar, a long-serving general practitioner at Yorketown, has never given his support for the removal of a general surgery or urology services from Yorketown Hospital, which is contrary to the public claims of the Chief Executive of SA Health? Why is it that it is only the wide level of community concerns expressed, and my declaration of holding a public meeting on 20 April, that has forced Country Health SA into holding community consultation on these plans? The Hon. J.J. SNELLING House of Assembly Playford Minister for Health Minister for the Arts Minister for Health Industries Country Health Services The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (15:14): Certainly, my understanding, and what I had been briefed, was that he was supportive of the changes and that the health advisory council had also been consulted about these changes and were broadly supportive. If that has changed, and we accept that they now have a different view, then obviously we are revisiting the issue, but there are still challenges to continuing to provide that service at Yorketown Hospital that need to be resolved. A lot of those issues do revolve around the availability of that particular doctor to be able to continue to provide the service. I'm not going to get into a 'he said, she said' type squabble about these issues, but we certainly accept that he has a different point of view now, and we will work with him as constructively as we can to try to resolve this issue.