House of Assembly Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2) 53 2 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Oakden Mental Health Facility Oakden Mental Health Facility Mr DULUK House of Assembly Davenport Oakden Mental Health Facility Mr DULUK (Davenport) (14:55): A supplementary to the Minister for Mental Health: has the minister personally discussed the Ward 18 option with the Chief Psychiatrist? The Hon. J.J. SNELLING House of Assembly Playford Minister for Health Minister for the Arts Minister for Health Industries Oakden Mental Health Facility The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:55): I have responsibility for the Repat site, and when the issue was first canvassed by the opposition that Ward 18 (the old Ward 18) might be a suitable place to put the Oakden residents, I spoke to senior officers in SALHN about its suitability for that purpose to which they have responded emphatically that it is not for the reasons I described. You can keep running this flag up the pole as much as you want. The simple answer is that it is not suited to the sorts of long-term requirements for patients at the Oakden facility. It is a short-term acute care facility for relatively short periods of stay. It doesn't have the facilities which are required for people needing the sort of long-term care that residents of the Oakden facility have. You can keep going on as much as you want about it, but they are the clinical facts.