Emergency Departments

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): My question is to the Premier. Why are there as at 12.30pm today 110 people stuck in emergency departments waiting for a bed, with 77 people in emergency waiting for over eight hours?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:11): The reason why there is an unacceptable level of delay in our hospitals is twofold: first, because we are experiencing unprecedented demand at the moment. As I outlined to the house last week, this is something not peculiar to South Australia: in fact, it is a nationwide phenomenon at the moment. It was something that was discussed at the national cabinet last week. It will be something that will be discussed at the next national cabinet meeting.

We are seeing an unprecedented surge in presentation, whether it be mental health presentations or emergency department presentations, right across the nation at the moment. Some people say that this is a lag effect of last year having a lower than normal presentation level, either within the GP arena or, of course, in our hospitals right across the country. Whatever the reason, we are experiencing unprecedented demand at the moment.

The second reason that we are having an unacceptable delay at the moment is that those opposite left the health system in South Australia in a perilous state where we did not have the number of doctors, nurses, paramedics and treatment areas that we actually require. We saw very clearly last week when I read into Hansard those notes from John Hill, a former Minister for Health, who said that there was a design flaw at the Flinders Medical Centre.

Well, that is exactly the design flaw that we are trying to address with a very, very significant increase in the budget for the southern system. In fact, the Flinders Medical Centre had 56 treatment areas when we came to government. By the end of July this year, it will be up to 86. That's a very significant increase. The Lyell McEwin will go from 39 to 72, and I can go through the list.

What we are doing is putting more capacity into the system, and we are doing it at exactly the same time that we are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Most importantly, though, we are developing this increased capacity in concert with the people within SA Health and consumer representatives. We have done that down on the Repat site with the redevelopment of Ward 18, which will now take tier 6 and tier 7 older persons with mental health issues. I have been down there. I have visited it.

The people in South Australia who have been affected, the consumers and their families and their communities, have been consulted about what best practice looks like for them. We have done it in terms of what we are doing down at the Repat site with the brain and spinal injury rehabilitation facility. It will be chalk and cheese with what we inherited down there from those opposite.

They love to say, 'Well, we were going to do it anyway.' They sold the Repat. They couldn't do it. They had completely and utterly neglected it. They had vacated the field when it came to this type of improvement to health services in South Australia. We haven't vacated the field. We got onto the field and we are working as hard as we possibly can to unwind the mess that we inherited from those opposite. In answer to the leader's question—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —I want to make it clear that there is an unacceptable delay in our hospitals at the moment, and that is a function of increased demand and inadequate facilities. But asked this morning on radio what the Leader of the Opposition would do, what did he say? He said there had been cuts put in place by this government. This is just simply not true. There are more doctors, more nurses, more paramedics—read the Auditor-General's Report—and of course more beds, more hospital facilities, more money in the budget.

The Leader of the Opposition loves the hot air. He loves getting it out of the system, but the reality is that we have still seen no policies, no health policies whatsoever, just whingeing, whining, carping, complaining. But, unfortunately, that will not do. The people of South Australia want a government which is going to fix the problems. That's precisely what we are doing in government.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for King, I warn the member for Playford and I call to order the member for West Torrens.