Queen Elizabeth Hospital Cath Lab

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:30): My question is to the Minister for Health. Given The Queen Elizabeth Hospital has only one functional echocardiography machine, will the minister commit to providing additional machines to ensure cardiac services at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital are properly resourced?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:31): We will do whatever we need to do to ensure that the service can continue to be provided, as it is at the moment, safely. I haven't heard anyone—anyone—suggest that what is being provided currently is an unsafe service. I am surprised at the sudden interest of the opposition in this particular issue. I would have thought that perhaps they might have been a bit more candid in the past and that they would have said if they really felt that the service that's being provided at the moment is unsafe.

I have no reason to believe that the current service is unsafe in any way and can't continue to operate in its current configuration, but obviously, if I am told otherwise and clinicians come to me with different advice, we will give it the appropriate consideration.