Question Time

Health and Hospital Care

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:51): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier agree with the health minister who has just told the other place: 'Our hospitals cannot operate effectively if they are constantly full of patients'?

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Mawson is warned. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:52): I have learnt to be very careful about putting much credence in selective quotes from those opposite. The point of the matter is that many of our hospitals in South Australia are currently operating well beyond their capacity, as a consequence of the chaotic mismanagement of the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They come in here, with all their faux outrage and concern for the health system in South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The reality is they had 16 years to fix the problems. In fact, they caused the problems because they are weak, absolutely weak—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens has a point of order. Has the Premier finished?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: No.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens on a point of order for?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Debate.

The SPEAKER: Debate. I have the point of order. The question was about hospitals being full. The Premier, I think, has given some explanation as to why they may be full. However, I expect him to come back to the substance of the question. Thank you, Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I have outlined to the house about the capacity—

Mr Brown: Tell us how tough you are about patients.

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford, you are warned for a second and final time. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you, sir. Capacity is a critical issue for our South Australian hospitals. What we inherited from those opposite was a chaotic arrangement. They were closing down services at the smaller hospitals in South Australia, the non-teaching hospitals in South Australia. They were removing services from those hospitals and concentrating more and more activity on to the three major spine hospitals: Flinders Medical Centre, Royal Adelaide Hospital and Lyell McEwin Hospital.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: this is of no relevance. The question was whether he agrees with the comments of his health minister.

The SPEAKER: For debate—I have the point of order. I have allowed the Premier some background information to be introduced into the answer. I will be listening carefully to ensure that he does stick to the substance of the question. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: There could be nothing more relevant than talking about capacity, because that is exactly what this is about. The reality is that capacity management is critical. It appears throughout virtually the entire diagnostic report and implementation report. We can't have hospitals continuing to operate consistently over capacity, which means that we need to look very carefully at where services are provided in South Australia. I have already outlined twice to those opposite evidence of what we are doing in the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network to alleviate the capacity constraints that we inherited from those opposite when they closed the Repat hospital.

We will also look at how we address capacity in the Central Adelaide Local Health Network and that is part of what is in the implementation plan. We don't shy away from the very significant problems that we inherited from those opposite. We don't shy away and we are not complaining about being given this task. We will fix it up. We were elected to fix it up and that is precisely what we will do.