Women's and Children's Hospital

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:12): My question is to the Premier. Why is the government building a new Women's and Children's Hospital with only one additional paediatric overnight bed than the current hospital? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: On 891 radio yesterday, I am advised that the Premier's health minister, in reference to the total paediatric admitted treatment spaces, said there was only one overnight medical bed in addition to the current hospital.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:12): I am happy to answer this question, but it's a bit much coming from the Leader of the Opposition. They didn't even want to build a new Women's and Children's Hospital. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming to a position to build half of what we are promoting down on that site.

We are going to have a purpose-built, state-of-the-art, co-located Women's and Children's Hospital right alongside the existing Royal Adelaide Hospital. We have currently within the hospital 441 treatment spaces, and that will increase to 500 in the new hospital. Last time I looked, that was an increase—a 13 per cent increase.

In addition to that, we will have a very large expansion in terms of the outpatient treatment spaces, from 130 or 140, as it sits at the moment, up to 170 going forward. The cherrypicker-in-chief, he loves to take a look at one statistic—

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —without looking at the overall position and all the work that we have done to sit down with the clinicians at the Women's and Children's Hospital—the same clinicians who actually rejected what Labor was saying, saying, 'Let's just keep these things separated out. We don't need to combine them.' We were the only state on mainland Australia that didn't have a co-located women's and children's hospital with its major teaching hospital. Those opposite, that's what wanted to continue.

By contrast we were listening to the clinicians. We say the people of South Australia deserve the very best. A very, very significant amount of consultation has gone into understanding exactly and precisely what we need and also to understand how that fits into the broader health system in South Australia. It was the case, for a very long period of time, that the Women's and Children's Hospital would do all the work with regard to women’s and children’s medical procedures and emergencies in South Australia.

What we have seen in recent times is of course an expansion of the paediatric services, the services specifically for women—obstetrics, gynaecology—both north and south, down at the Flinders Medical Centre, a very large expansion down there, out north at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. Of course, unlike those opposite we haven't been downgrading the services that exist in the other hospitals in South Australia; in fact, we have been doing quite the opposite and expanding the capacity and the capability at all hospitals in South Australia, and we are very proud to have done exactly and precisely that.

So to make it very clear, it's not the Leader of the Opposition and it's not the Labor Party that we are taking advice from on this matter. It's looking at the projections in terms of the way that treatment is going forward, the likely increases in population, the different methodologies for treatment. What we have seen during the pandemic is a shift to more telemedicine, and we know that this is a positive. This will change the nature and the mix of those people who are presenting in our hospitals. We listened to that and we framed our response.

What we will see in today's budget is a final cost for this state-of-the-art facility that the people of South Australia deserve and have deserved for a very long period of time, and we will see a very substantial increase in the treatment spaces over and above what exists now. But there is a change in mix with regard to the proportion, and there will be some opportunity for people to reflect on all of that consultation work that has gone in.

If we compare that with what happened under the previous government, with their failure to consult on the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, the position and the contrast are quite stark. I understand from people in my electorate that at one stage the Royal Adelaide Hospital had 1,100 beds there. The new hospital was built with 700 beds. That seems to me a massive reduction. By contrast, what we have done—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —is to respond with a massive increase to meet the current and future needs of South Australians.