Regional Nurses

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister inform the house of any work underway to expand nurses' scope of practice in peri-urban and regional South Australia?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:43): It is fantastic to receive another question about nursing because this is a particular commitment that we on this side of the house have to invest in our frontline nurses. I know this is an issue particularly for the member for Light in terms of making sure that services at Gawler hospital are as good as they possibly can be, and we are taking steps to further invest in hospital services at Gawler.

It was great, two weeks ago, to be with the member for Light visiting Gawler hospital and speaking to the staff there and to now be able to announce that we are investing in more nurses at Gawler hospital. These are not just any nurses; we are investing in the highest trained, skilled nurses we have in our system, who are nurse practitioners. These are nurses who have taken additional levels of training and experience who then have the ability to undertake a broader scope of practice in terms of being able to prescribe medication, order diagnostic tests and being able to refer for scans, etc.

So it is particularly useful, therefore, to have them in a busy emergency department like the Gawler emergency department. This government is investing $2 million in four additional nurse practitioners, who are starting later this month at the Gawler hospital, and I thank the member for Light for his advocacy on this.

We know that with the number of presentations Gawler hospital receives that is going to be very well utilised by the community of Gawler. Of course, this is an area that was promised an upgraded emergency department. That hasn't eventuated yet and this is something that this government will deliver. We will be building that expanded emergency department at Gawler and get that hospital project off the ground to make sure it can provide those border services.

But there is more. We are also investing in nurse practitioners in other areas as well, and something that I have been speaking a lot to the member for Mawson about are services on Kangaroo Island. We know that Kangaroo Island is obviously isolated by water, therefore it is really important that we keep an important range of services on Kangaroo Island. We are facing significant workforce shortages, particularly in terms of GP services, so we are now investing in two nurse practitioners who will be on the island as well.

This is another area where we are working cooperatively with the federal government and we want to thank in particular, in this case, Rebekha Sharkie, who was able to deliver $1.2 million, which has helped us in terms of bringing on at least one of those nurse practitioners to Kangaroo Island as well. I think we have a very good relationship with Rebekha Sharkie and also, of course, the member for Mawson and yourself as well in representing that area.

Yet there is even more. In that local health network—the Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network—there will be a seventh additional nurse practitioner starting who will be working with aged-care facilities across the region to help people stay healthy, to help keep them in their aged-care facility without having to resort to going to hospital, because we know that not only is that not good for the resident to have to go to hospital but also, of course, it has an impact on the broader health system as well. The benefits of that will be felt right across the region in terms of helping aged-care residents stay healthy and in their homes.

This is a program, in terms of nurse practitioners, that I am personally keen and committed to expand across our health network. We know that we have some incredibly talented nurses with a high degree of clinical excellence. This is a program that started 10 to 15 years ago. Over the last few years we haven't seen much expansion of it, but this is another good sign of how we can use nurse practitioners to provide better care for the community.