Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:09): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier apologise to South Australians for governing over the worst ramping levels in our state's history? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: that question involves significant debate and argument, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I give some latitude to both the leader and the Premier. I'm going to allow the leader to recast his question, mindful of the fact that facts can only be introduced with leave.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: Thank you for your latitude, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Premier. Has ambulance ramping increased to record levels under his watch? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The last 10 months of ramping have been the worst on record, with each month above 3,000 hours.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:10): Thank you very much for the question. I'm very happy to answer this question—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —which is clearly a very significant issue, and one in which the government is investing record amounts—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta, order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —of funding, resources and effort to address the issues that our hospital system is facing. I can inform the member that there is progress, in that we have seen ramping reduce by 21 per cent since June last year. However, there is still a significant amount of work to do.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: There is still a significant amount of work to do. This government is investing in opening additional hospital beds, which are the critical thing that we need across our health system to make sure that patients can get seen, that they can reduce the access block in emergency departments, and we can make sure that patients get off the ramp.

Ultimately, what our key goal is in terms of improving those ambulance response times that got worse and worse under the previous four years of the Marshall government, to get to the point where they are by far the worst in the whole country—that's why we went to the election with a very clear four-year plan to invest in building additional capacities in our hospitals.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Hammond!

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morphett is warned. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: In fact, we are now going much further than what we said at the election as well. For instance, if you look at—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morphett is on two warnings. Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —Flinders Medical Centre, where we committed 24 additional beds at the election, now working with the federal government we have increased that to 136 extra beds in our plan, of which we are now fast-tracking the development of those beds. Clearly, it takes time to build additional capacity. We can't snap our fingers, because we have clearly inherited a situation where while we have come into office—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned. Member for Frome! Member for Hammond! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —and opened up every single bed that we have across the system, that's not enough. We need to do even more, and we are investing every possible means in doing that. Look at Lyell McEwin Hospital, where we committed 24 beds. We have now increased that to 48. At Noarlunga Hospital, where we committed 24 beds, we are increasing that to 48. We are listening to the clinicians. We are investing in key areas such as mental health that do need additional investment, because a significant number of mental health patients get stuck in emergency departments as well. Clearly, we don't see any alternative plans that have been put up.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Schubert is on two warnings. The minister has the call. Member for Frome!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We are absolutely delivering our plans, yet we've got the Leader of the Opposition who says, 'Oh, it's not up to us to think of anything. We'll just say things are really bad.' Of course, we are delivering on a plan. We are investing more than we originally said in delivering that plan, but we need those additional beds in the system. Anybody who understands these issues knows that it is that key access block that's causing the problems, where each morning we get people who are stuck in emergency departments waiting for beds in the hospital system.

We didn't see additional hospital beds coming online in the previous four years of the previous government. In fact, if you look at what they triumph at Flinders Medical Centre, they actually reduced the number of inpatient beds at Flinders Medical Centre through their changes at that hospital site. We need to increase those beds. We need to make sure that patients have places to go, and that is exactly what we are delivering.