Question Time

Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier agree with the Women's and Children's Hospital chief executive officer, Lindsey Gough, about the quality of care at the hospital and the government's decision to delay the new Women's and Children's Hospital? Sir, with your leave, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Yesterday, the Women's and Children's Hospital chief executive, Lindsey Gough, was quoted on ABC Radio as saying:

Those issues we felt were manageable when we thought we were moving hospital earlier, but now we are moving to the new site at a later date we know we have to undertake more work on this site to ensure that we can continue to deliver the high-quality care.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:13): I haven't seen the quote that is being alleged, but I will certainly check any particular transcripts. In relation to the new hospital, what we are very clear on is—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —that this is a hospital which has been delayed and delayed and delayed over time. In fact, it was promised by the previous government that it was going to open in 2024; that's only in 13 months' time that we were going to have a new hospital opening—

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hammond!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —on that site. That was completely fanciful. We got to office and the project was in a very serious state, where there were serious issues in terms of the implementation of that hospital. Quite rightly, we are looking at issues in terms of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and that was one of the issues raised in relation to the previous government's design of the hospital, that we were going to have a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit that was disconnected from the other important areas of the hospital that it needed to connect to.

We made the decision, the decision for the long term, the decision to put health first, a difficult decision, mind you, that we needed to put that hospital on a larger site to enable a bigger hospital to be built to make sure that we could build the future services that are required on that site.

We looked at the alternative of: do we continue with the previous government's plans for that site? That was still going to be some six years away, the opening of a new hospital on that constrained site. So we would have six years of delay still in opening the new hospital and we would have a hospital that was built—

The Hon. P.B. Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier is called to order. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We would have a hospital that is built—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Unley! Member for Frome! The Premier is called to order.

The Hon. P.B. Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier knows the standing orders. The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The exchange across the chamber is preventing the minister from being able to answer. The member for Hammond is warned. The member for Florey is warned. The Premier is warned. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: On the old site that was proposed, you would have another six years of no new hospital there and you would eventually have a hospital built that didn't meet the requirements for PICU in the long term. The intensive care specialists were extremely concerned about that and they were raising their concerns very strongly. They have been very, very supportive of our plans to build that new hospital on a new site that means the hot floor services can be combined on that new site and that's exactly what we are delivering.

Of course, whether we went with the previous government's plan or this new plan, we were going to have to look at the existing services in that site. This is something where the previous government, in the previous sustainment works of the hospital, didn't undertake any works in relation to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit even though they were warned about this issue from the College of Intensive Care Medicine not a few weeks ago, not a few months ago, but back in 2018. Back in 2018, the College—

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley! The member for Unley knows better. The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Morialta! The minister has the call. There are 20 seconds remaining.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: The College of Intensive Care Medicine raised concerns about the infrastructure then at the site, but there were decisions made about the various sustainment works at that hospital and no investments were made in paediatric intensive care. This government will do that both at the current site and at the new site to build a new hospital that is built for the long term.