House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Lyell McEwin Hospital Lyell McEwin Hospital Mrs HURN House of Assembly Schubert Lyell McEwin Hospital Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister consider acquiring further land to expand the Lyell McEwin Hospital just as the previous Liberal government was considering? Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The Treasurer is called to order. The member for West Torrens is called to order. The member for Badcoe is called to order. The minister has the call. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Hurn interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is called to order. The minister has the call. The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health and Wellbeing The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:52): I really think I do need to change my PBN folder and call it 'Things the previous government were thinking about or said that they might do in the last couple of weeks before the election'. They had a whole series of briefs on everything they were going to do, that they were thinking about going to do, that they might have done and if only they had a bit more time they might have done. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call. The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly The Hon. C.J. PICTON: There was no action taken by the previous government in terms acquiring that land. Mr Gardner interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta! The minister has the call. The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly The Hon. C.J. PICTON: As I previously said, the Lyell McEwin is a hospital which has expanded and expanded under previous Labor government commitments and which is now about to expand again under a new Labor government commitment. Clearly, there are issues in terms of the space available on that site. There is the potential for land, which has been identified by the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network, and they have started discussions with the City of Playford in terms of whether we could acquire that site. I spoke only yesterday—when we were at the Lyell McEwin Hospital announcing the big expansion of beds at the hospital—with Ms Maree Geraghty, the chief executive of the hospital, and she has been undertaking those talks with the City of Playford. Those talks are going well. We are hoping that will provide future expansion capacity in terms of the hospital because we now need to think not just about the next four years but about the next generation. This is something that the Premier has made very clear as part of our mission as a government and making sure that we have the capacity for this hospital to grow into the future and to provide care for people in the northern suburbs who need it. The other element of that is that it keeps pressure off particularly the Royal Adelaide Hospital because we know so many people from the catchment of the Lyell McEwin Hospital end up at the Royal Adelaide Hospital at the moment and, of course, not just from that catchment but also from country hospitals as well. People from the Mid North, Yorke Peninsula, often will end up coming to Lyell McEwin Hospital. It is at a crunch point in terms of services available on that site, particularly inpatient beds. Having a future ability to expand, enabling proper master planning to be done of the health needs into the long term, is very welcome, and so I am very keen that the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network continue those discussions. Hopefully, we will reach a good arrangement in terms of working with the City of Playford to make sure that we can secure that future capacity because on this side of the house we believe in continuing to invest in our health services as a top priority of this government.