Modbury Hospital

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:17): My question is to the Minister for Health. Now that calls over a two-year period have been answered with a $9 million commitment to Modbury Hospital for an eight-bed extended care unit in the emergency department, can the minister inform the house what consultation and planning took place with Modbury Hospital staff, when in 2018 will the work commence and when will the ECU be operational, will the $9 million (more than $1 million per bed) provide extra ED beds and additional staff over and above the current levels, and whether attracting staff at the Modbury Hospital, as per my question to you on 16 May, remains a problem? If so, what is being done to overcome the issue?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (15:17): How long have I got? I would like to thank the member for Florey—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: The poor old member for Davenport is a bit exercised today. Can I thank the member for Florey for her question and acknowledge the fact that the member for Florey has been a strong advocate for Modbury Hospital and, in particular, has been a big supporter of having an extended care unit attached to the emergency department.

With regard to the staffing, yes, of course they will be appropriately staffed. As part of the EB, there are ratios that are in place within the enterprise bargain, so we always have to appropriately staff beds. If we put in extra beds, as we will be, yes, of course with that will come the operational funding that will be required to ensure that those beds are appropriately staffed.

The construction—I haven't got the exact dates, but they were in the press release on Saturday about expected completion. It doesn't come to me immediately, but it's not a huge project and I think construction is expected to start next year. I will double-check, but I think the expected completion date will be by the end of the following year, from memory. But, as I say, that information is on the press release that was distributed on Saturday. I think that was the general thrust of the questions.

I think this is a great outcome. We have been working closely with the emergency department doctors at Modbury Hospital. They have made it clear that this is something they require. Patients who at present don't require a full-blown admission in the hospital but do require to be kept in hospital either because they are having tests done or they require to be kept in hospital for observation—so they don't require the full admission, but they do require some observation—at the moment are being kept, generally speaking, in the emergency department.

That's not ideal for a couple of reasons. Firstly, an emergency department is a busy place, a disruptive place, and it is not the best environment to be in for a patient who is recovering from something, so to have a separate area that's nonetheless adjacent to the emergency department is very, very good. Also, we expect that, if the emergency department know that they can keep patients in the ED and they can keep them there safely, it will result in fewer transfers.

Having said that, I was provided with this statistic before the changes, the reconfiguration, that we made as part of modernising our health system. The transfers out of the Modbury Hospital emergency department were 10 per cent of presentations. The percentage of transfers now is 11 per cent, so there has been only a 1 per cent increase in the number of transfers out of the Modbury Hospital emergency department.

But this new development will in fact mean that there will probably be less need for transfers, and this is something that's been worked on in a collaborative way with the member for Florey and other members of parliament, including the member for Newland, I know. The member for Wright and the member for Torrens have been very strong advocates for having this extended care unit—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: And the other Labor candidates of course.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: —and all the Labor candidates as well. It's a great outcome.

Ms BEDFORD: A supplementary, Mr Speaker?

The SPEAKER: Alas, question time is over.

Ms BEDFORD: That is very sad.

The SPEAKER: That may be so, but the clock tells me that it is over.