Public Works Committee: Port Augusta Ambulance Station

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:37): I move:

That the seventh report of the committee, entitled New Port Augusta Ambulance Station, be noted.

The submission from the Department for Health and Wellbeing proposes a new ambulance station for the South Australian Ambulance Service at Port Augusta. Existing operations for the area are conducted from a small ambulance station built in the 1960s, adjacent to Port Augusta Hospital.

The rationale to justify a new station rests upon a number of important considerations: firstly, the current facility no longer aligns with modern requirements regarding vehicle garaging, staff facilities, security and parking; secondly, the current facility demands significant spending on repairs and maintenance, with facility expansion unviable on the existing site; thirdly, the current location does not align with emergency response mapping and is negatively impacted by railway crossings; and, lastly, the current facility is leased from St John Ambulance SA, making the long-term availability of the site uncertain.

In order to address these issues, the department proposes the construction of a modern, centralised ambulance station. The energy efficient facility would include garaging for six ambulances and two other response vehicles, six crew rest areas, staff lockers and bathrooms, an office and study space, equipment storage rooms, one multipurpose room, a large training facility and a crew room with kitchen and courtyard.

Dispatch and response times are key performance indicators used by the Ambulance Service. By situating crew rooms next to the ambulance bay, along with rest areas and restocking facilities, dispatch and response times are expected to improve with these works. The new station would support major incident response and post-disaster preparedness and improve staff morale by providing a well-suited, secure and convenient location in which to work.

Going forward, the proposed public works will help ensure the SA Ambulance Service has the capacity to manage additional resources. The project will support appropriate service delivery for the community and enhance collaboration with regional health facilities. The department has assured the committee that it has consulted extensively with the executive and operational staff of the Ambulance Service and that appropriate interdepartmental consultation has occurred. Construction is scheduled to commence in late October or early November 2022, with completion in August 2023.

The committee has examined written and oral evidence in relation to the new ambulance station. Witnesses who appeared before the committee were Mr Tim Packer, Director, Capital Projects, Department for Health and Wellbeing; Mr Simon Morony, Executive Director, Across Government Services, Department for Infrastructure and Transport; Mr Rob Tolson, Interim Executive Director, Operations (Country), SA Ambulance Service; and Mr Peter Tynan, Director, Greenway Architects. The committee acknowledges the letter received from Mr Geoff Brock, the member for Stuart, expressing his strong support for this project.

Based upon the evidence considered and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public works.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (11:40): I will briefly add my comments in relation to this new ambulance station and thank the Public Works Committee for their deliberations and investigations into this important piece of infrastructure. The Premier and I, as well as the Minister for Regional Roads and the member for Giles, had the opportunity to visit the existing Port Augusta ambulance station recently while we were at country cabinet and to meet the hardworking staff there who provide services to the community in what is a very out-of-date ambulance station that is not fit for the future of South Australia.

There have been previous plans put in place to build an ambulance station in Port Augusta that is, frankly, going to be far too small for the needs of the future of services, so there has been work to revise those plans to make sure they can fit the number of staff and the number of vehicles that we are going to need in the future for the Upper Spencer Gulf.

One of our commitments in relation to health for the Upper Spencer Gulf was additional ambulance officers in the Port Augusta region—an additional regional transfer crew that will be based at Port Augusta, in addition to extra paramedics and ambulance officers who will be based in Whyalla and also in Peterborough—so clearly we are going to need additional room. We do not want to build a station that is going to be too small by the time we open it.

This new site, which will be located within the close township of Port Augusta, is going to enable future growth in services to be provided there, including the growth that we have already budgeted and are planning for in relation to those services. We know that there are particular issues in terms of ambulance services in the Upper Spencer Gulf, particularly between Whyalla and Port Augusta, where there is often too much desire and need for the Ambulance Service, where people will have to go between Whyalla and Port Augusta, obviously delaying those ambulance arrivals for people who need critical care, so this will have a significant boost in terms of those services.

This new ambulance station is a critical part of making sure we can deliver on that. The current station, which has been there for a very long time, is clearly not fit for purpose at all. It is looking very dated, and I think that all the ambulance officers who work in the community are looking forward to this new station opening.

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:42): I want to thank the minister for his kind comments about the work of the committee and also thank the member for Stuart for passing on the views of his community regarding this particular project. As I said previously, the committee does find it quite instructive to get views from local members.

Motion carried.