Country Health Services

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:04): My question is to the minister representing the Minister for Health. Can the minister confirm that there will be no doctors in the entire Central Yorke Peninsula—none at Maitland, none at Ardrossan and none at Minlaton—from this afternoon through Monday and what is being done to address this obvious gap in services?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:05): I thank the member for the question. We are well aware, obviously, of the member's passion for health in his community, and I previously have advised the house about the experience I had when visiting his area as the Minister for Education, the discussions we had about some of the matters in Kadina in particular.

The member has particularly asked about Ardrossan, and so I have some information that is relevant. Obviously, SA Health and the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network don't have direct involvement in general practitioner recruitment for GP practices within their local health network, and that includes at the Ardrossan hospital.

General practice training and funding are primarily a responsibility of the commonwealth government; however, the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network does provide support where it can. For example—and this goes directly, I think, to the second part of the member's question—I am advised the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network is working with Adelaide Unicare to assist in providing equipment to the Minlaton Medical Centre to enable accident and emergency services to continue.

Further, the Marshall Liberal government has committed $20 million over four years to develop and implement a South Australian Rural Medical Workforce Plan. This plan was released in December 2019. It outlines the government's commitment to recruit, train and develop the health professionals needed to deliver country health services. The plan includes doubling rural medical intern positions, offering more training opportunities and identifying ways to grow, incentivise and strengthen our rural medical workforce.

As I have outlined, there are certain aspects the member raises, the concerns that he represents on behalf of his constituents, that are indeed commonwealth responsibility, but SA Health will provide support where it is possible to do so. This government is committed to providing that support where we can, and I have outlined some of the measures that have already taken place.