SA Ambulance Service

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:56): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier, on behalf of the government, apologise to the families of the victims of the cluster of nine deaths?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:56): We regret any adverse incident in our entire health system. The reality is that it's a disaster, a tragedy, when anything like this occurs. That's why we have taken proactive steps to address the issues that we inherited when we came to government with regard to the overcrowding at the emergency departments. I am happy to go through them, because some opposite say that they haven't heard what we have said, but—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —we kept beds open at the Repat. In fact, we have opened an additional 20 beds here in South Australia.

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We have opened 10 new psychiatric intensive care unit beds at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. They had remained closed under the previous government, who hadn't signed off on the hospital in accordance with the original specifications. We are opening another 10 forensic mental health beds on the Glenside campus, and we have changed protocols by working with clinicians. This is the big difference when there is a change in government. We go back, we look at what has occurred in the past and we decide how we can do this better.

What we have decided to do is actually listen to the clinicians who exist within our health system in South Australia. Can I say that we have been delighted with the suggestions that have been coming forward. Where possible, we implement them as quickly as possible. Have we solved all the problems that we inherited from those opposite? No. I don't want to overpromise and then underdeliver, but I can tell you one thing: we are working as diligently as we possibly can. It's a pity we didn't have a very clear picture of the size of the mess that we were going to inherit.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Since coming to government, sir, I remind you and I remind this house that we have put an additional $900 million worth of new money back into the budget in South Australia. We have had to do that because our health system was under enormous pressure when we came to government. The former government had foreshadowed and projected—and in fact included into their budget—brutal cuts to our health system at a time when this would have absolutely put the people of South Australia in a perilous situation. By contrast—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —we have reinvested in our health system in South Australia. There is plenty more to come. The Minister for Health and Wellbeing is working very diligently. We have new board structures about to be rolled out, and the chairs of all those boards have been appointed. Importantly, we are seeing a massive return of control to regional South Australia, going from one centralised health bureaucracy in the centre of the city controlling all country hospitals in this state to six separate country local health networks.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I think it's six, isn't it? Did somebody say seven? Sorry. So six local health networks in country SA. We believe this is the right decision because we will have decision-makers closer to the action in those regional communities, making sure that we can keep the health of people living right across this state as a major priority.

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna and the member for Playford are warned, and the member for West Torrens is warned for a second and final time. Member for Kaurna.