Royal Adelaide Hospital

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:13): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Has the minister received any advice on risks to patient and staff safety in relation to the temporary emergency department waiting room at the Royal Adelaide Hospital? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN:The Advertiser on 18 August reported that the temporary waiting room barely has room for new arrivals to queue to be seen, with the desk close to the sliding automatic doors opening, and that the small entrance was chaos as patient, staff, wheelchairs and barouches, and more, jostled for space coming and going.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:14): This is something I have certainly had discussions on with the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, before and since that arrangement has been put in place, to make sure that we are doing everything that we possibly can to assist patients during the interim while that construction work is undertaken. I think a key element that hasn't been mentioned by the shadow minister is there is still part of the existing waiting room which can be used as an overflow area. If there is a high demand in the emergency department then that area can be used in terms of a waiting room as well.

There has also been a lot of work done in terms of making sure that not only in that waiting room there is a comparable number of seats to what the previous waiting room had but that also there is the same amount of triage space for triage staff, and also that there are areas for people to get initial treatment inside that area before they are transitioned into the emergency department. Of course, we want that project to be done as soon as possible. Involving these construction sites, we always appreciate people's patience during that period, both the staff and the people using it, the patients coming into those service.

This is a construction, in terms of what has been put there temporarily, that is akin to what the Marshall government put at The QEH outside its emergency department. It is a structure which has been used since the Marshall government outside The QEH. I certainly didn't hear any complaints about it then. But we will be making sure that that work is done as fast as possible. Certainly, the government stands willing to provide whatever assistance is necessary in terms of making sure that the Central Adelaide Local Health Network can provide care for those people in the interim until the new emergency department waiting room opens.