Royal Adelaide Hospital Residential Wing

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (12:52): I move:

That this house—

(a) notes the importance of the Royal Adelaide Hospital residential wing and the fact it offers low-cost accommodation to patients and relatives attending the hospital;

(b) acknowledges the new Royal Adelaide Hospital lacks such a facility;

(c) recognises that, without an alternative affordable accommodation option, many regional families, such as those in the Riverland and Mallee, may be left without anywhere to stay when requiring medical procedures in Adelaide;

(d) acknowledges the fact that many international nursing students also utilise the current accommodation at the Royal Adelaide Hospital residential wing; and

(e) calls on the state government to ensure ongoing access to low-cost accommodation for regional patients after the closure of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

This motion is a significant one for regional and rural South Australians and, while issues relating to the replication of the Royal Adelaide Hospital residential wing at the NRAH have been dismissed by the Minister for Health, country patients will be the ones who feel the impact.

This issue was first raised with me by constituents in the Riverland. A number of patients in the Riverland use that residential accommodation at the RAH on a regular basis. Some have used it once or twice, at a time of need. By way of background, the Royal Adelaide Hospital lists the residential wing as reasonably priced accommodation that is available to patients and relatives attending the hospital. The description states:

The Residential wing offers single room accommodation with communal kitchen, laundry and uni-sex bathroom facilities. The residential wing used to be the nurses' home and has twelve floors. It is located at the rear of the hospital (northern end). The rooms are basic and linen is provided.

The residential wing is rented commercially to overseas students. The advantages of the residential wing are that it is on site, it is cheap and it is ideal in an emergency situation when you just want a bed or a shower. This sums up the residential wing pretty well. At $28 a night, it provides rural and regional people, who are often travelling for hours for medical procedures, an affordable accommodation option. Many of the patients who require to use the accommodation did not plan to stay longer than a day, but for various reasons their trip is extended.

Back in 2015, concerns were raised with me by a constituent who had previously stayed at the wing of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He was in a wheelchair and had been told that this time around he could no longer stay at the facility, due to the design of the building. He was, of course, extremely disappointed. In addition, he was told the facility would only be open for a little longer anyway, and that the new RAH would not have the same facility.

With much concern, I wrote to the Minister for Health and he responded by saying that a residential wing would be closed prior to the transition of the new RAH, which was planned for April 2016. Funny—we've gone past April 2017 and the new RAH is still not open. So, the exact date for the closure was yet to be determined. He went on to say:

In the new RAH there are 700 inpatient single bedrooms that have been designed to be the primary base for patient care. Incorporated into each room is a bedseat that will allow relatives and carers the option of an overnight stay in the room at no cost, where it is deemed to be in the best interest of the patient. Alternatively, commercial accommodation is available to the public within close proximity to the new RAH precinct.

This news was not met well by the people of the Riverland using the accommodation, particularly with the number of patients requiring to stay for a week or so—that is, a continual stay. It was pointed out by the Central Adelaide Local Health Network that people can apply for a nightly $40 subsidy if they need to travel more than 100 kilometres each way for treatment. For low-income families, the cost of transport to Adelaide is often too much, let alone up-front accommodation costs. That is why the $28 a night residential wing has been such an important option, particularly for Riverland people.

The latest advice from the health department is that patients can stay in nearby private accommodation for around $100 a night, but for regional patients $100 a night is a lot more than $28 per night. Sometimes people just cannot afford to have continual $100 per night bills coming in. The Rural Doctors Association has also raised concerns on this issue, stating that it does not appear that there is a practical solution for people who need to stay for several days or more.

The organisation also highlighted that more country patients should be required to use city hospitals in coming years, due to the rules on what services country hospitals can and cannot do. It is important to acknowledge that there is low-cost accommodation for patients suffering from a particular illness, such as accommodation provided by the Cancer Council South Australia, but the fact that the residential wing has not been replicated at the new RAH is going to cause major issues for regional patients.

I lodged a freedom of information request recently to find out how many patients were staying at that residential wing. While I did not get an answer to that question, I did receive the total amount of money received for using the residential wing—essentially, the total revenue. The South Australian government received nearly $7 million. Where is that $7 million going to come from now? That was between 2010 and 2015-16. That is a lot of accommodation nights in that hospital wing.

In 2011, Berri's Joan Recchia was in a serious car accident. She was flown to the Adelaide hospital for emergency treatment. She was discharged the next day with nowhere to go and was in a bad way in that she still could not walk. So her pregnant daughter, Stellar, was flown to Adelaide. When discharged from hospital, she was told she was unable to return to the Riverland for 15 days. There is an example of what the residential wing provided as accommodation.

Another local lady, Emma Grieger, was also pregnant at the time. She went to the Women's and Children's and was initially admitted but then discharged and required to remain in Adelaide for many, many days. She was put up in the residential wing until she was ready to give birth. As Joan said, 'What is going to happen in the future?' It is anyone's guess. If there are complications during pregnancy, the expectant mother often has to remain in hospital, sometimes for extended periods. Women who have early childbirth do have to stay in hospital until their term is met. Again, this is what the residential wing provides for people who are travelling. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.