Hospital Beds

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:08): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier take responsibility that his decision to close 60 beds in hospitals and cut doctors and nurses is causing delays in EDs for patients, therefore affecting emergency care via ambulances?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order: standing order 97, argument and a range of other things in standing order 97.

The SPEAKER: I was prepared to allow it up to 'therefore'. I will allow the leader to rephrase the question.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: I will repeat the first part, thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier take responsibility that his decision to close 60 beds in hospitals and cut doctors and nurses is causing delays in emergency departments?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:09): It would have been handy for everybody in this house if the Leader of the Opposition had actually listened to the answer to my last question. Advice from the South Australian Ambulance—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The leader is called to order. You have asked your question.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Advice from the South Australian Ambulance Service and the Southern Adelaide Health Network is that neither ramping nor any other hospital-based issue was a factor in the delivery of ambulance care in the south last night.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: So that's—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader! The member for Badcoe is called to order, as is the Deputy Premier.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: So it is important to get that on the record again for the opposition.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Let me also correct the Leader of the Opposition: we are not closing beds.

Mr Malinauskas: You are not closing beds? You are closing 60 beds.

The SPEAKER: Order, leader!

Mr Duluk: You closed the Repat; what are you on about?

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite is called to order. I know he has been to mass this morning, but that is not an excuse to interject.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: The opposition came here yesterday during question time and made all these assertions. The Premier addressed these questions—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Minister, there is a point of order. If the minister could be seated for one moment. The point of order is?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Debate, sir. When he says, 'The opposition said,' that is debate.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order. With respect to the member for West Torrens, the minister is facing what I would call an unfair amount of interjections. They are not rare and they are not courteous at the moment, from the left and the right of me. So I ask those interjections to cease so that I can hear his answer, and I will adjudicate accordingly if I need to. The minister has the call.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. The opposition came in yesterday in question time and made these assertions and asked these questions, and they were ably addressed by the Premier. They were ably addressed by the Premier. Coming and asking the same things all over again—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —doesn't make them any truer. But let me provide some very specific information. Building more capacity into our hospitals is vital to stop ramping. The NRAH has been operating at full capacity for most of the time since it opened. This means that when a surge comes there is nowhere to put those patients. The Marshall Liberal government has been working to ease the pressure on our busy emergency departments—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —with programs such as the priority care centres and Hospital at Home. The RAH was designed, built and planned, like all hospitals, to have surge capacity, but since then it has basically run at full capacity. Having spare capacity is something stakeholder groups across the health sector have acknowledged is crucial to running an effective hospital. The ambulance association—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: The ambulance association, the medical officers association, the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association and the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine have all stated that no hospital should run at 100 per cent capacity. Even the opposition, while they were in government, said that the RAH should not be running at 100 per cent capacity. The hospital needs to be able to cope with surges in demand. These beds will be on stand-by to be used when needed. Patient care will always be our government's top priority.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, I call the following members to order: the member for Kaurna, the leader, the member for Hurtle Vale, the member for Wright and the Minister for Police. Leader.