Yorketown Hospital

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (16:09): I rise in joyous celebration today for the electorate of Narungga and the people particularly on the southern part of Yorke Peninsula. It is a joyous celebration about an election commitment promised and an election commitment delivered. One of my enduring memories of the 2018 election campaign was a packed Yorketown Town Hall decrying the removal of surgical services from Yorketown Hospital. There must have been over 600 people in this hall. It was full from floor to ceiling, and all were extraordinarily passionate that they needed their local health services retained.

As I said, it was a full town hall. A petition was launched and available for signing upon entry to the hall, and it was eventually presented to this place carrying almost 2,050 signatures. So it was a tremendous honour recently to attend a small low-key event, which defied the significance of the occasion, to mark the opening of a brand-new surgery procedure room at Yorketown Hospital. It is a tremendous honour to have delivered a brand-new surgery theatre procedure room so that surgery can recommence, and I can report that locals are absolutely overjoyed that a number of lists have already been completed this year.

It cannot be overstated how important it is to keep regional health facilities up to standard and well maintained so that such services can continue. So often, Mr Deputy Speaker, as you would well know, city-based decision-makers do not appropriately appreciate the distances between towns and services. While Yorke Peninsula might look small when they survey it on a map, some 30,000 people live there and it is 230 kilometres long, so when services are removed it means a great deal of travelling for families who have to go hours for alternative solutions.

As I said, this was a major commitment that I fought terribly hard to get in the lead-up to the election, which was to upgrade the theatre with a brand-new decontamination unit and procedure room, upgraded drying cabinets and air conditioning, and compliance upgrades, which now all means more efficient and safer care closer to home for the people of southern Yorke Peninsula.

I can report that, since becoming the member for Narungga, regional health services and the importance of improving and maintaining them have been the number one topic that I have been contacted about, and it is the one that I feel most compelled to make a real difference in for my constituents in the towns and communities in which we live.

Whole populations rely on the delivery of appropriate levels of health services, and regions that cannot provide reliable and adequate health services and hospitals will die, because it is an undisputed fact that the families, retirees, the elderly—all age groups—will not choose to live in an area where they cannot confidently access the health services they need. People will move to where they can see they will receive care when they need it, and with such population shifts come subsequent small business closures, job losses, school closures, loss of services across the board and domino economic and social consequences.

No, rural people do not expect to be able to access all specialities close to home, but they do expect to have a relatively near accident and emergency facility, have a GP to go to and be able to have relatively minor surgical procedures done without the need to travel hundreds of kilometres. As I have said, the local people down on the southern part of Yorke Peninsula are overjoyed that Yorketown Hospital has experienced this upgrade and that the election commitment that we promised leading up to 2018 has been delivered.

However, it is an ongoing battle across the state for rural services, and rural people appear constantly on guard against getting more cuts all the time. Whilst not in Narungga, Balaklava hospital is now facing the same fight as Yorketown did back in 2017, having just lost their theatre and being fed the line that it is because the demand is not there and that it is not being used enough. Because the facility has not been maintained to appropriate standards in order for services to be provided there, it is declared a risk.

It is about closing services by stealth, withdrawing what is on offer and threatening the economic viability of rural doctors and, by extension, service delivery to patients. So it was pleasing to reverse this decision that Transforming Health would have had on Yorketown Hospital. I am thrilled that it has been and to be speaking here today in commendation of all the local people who fought for the restoration, who attended meetings, signed petitions, met with my predecessor Steven Griffiths and me and spurred on the support and noise to reach this outcome.

I would particularly like to pay homage to the Friends of Yorketown Hospital, who do a terrific job fundraising and supporting that hospital and the people who work in it. It is a win for the people and, whilst the wait has been long, it has been worth it. Inroads into the huge backlog of maintenance in country hospitals are being made, and I applaud these efforts. I will now continue to advocate for a new accident and emergency space at Yorketown, which is struggling to function in the space that currently exists. Thankfully, restoration of procedures like colonoscopies being available at Yorketown is now off the to-do list and has been met warmly by local residents.