Paediatric Cochlear Implant Program

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. How many applications have been received for ex gratia payments from families impacted by the Paediatric Cochlear Implant Program at the Women's and Children's Hospital, and how many of the $50,000 payments have now been made?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:55): I understand that, across the two categories of payments that we had, there have been 110 payments that have been made, but I will have to seek on notice the breakdown between the two different categories. I can answer as well in relation to the previous question that the oversight committee chaired by Professor Baggoley has now signed off that 12 of those recommendations are being fully implemented.

That includes recruiting an additional four allied health professionals to bolster the workforce, creating a new role for a cochlear implant liaison, securing the ongoing appointment of the program manager, developing a workforce plan to strengthen the permanency of staffing roles and less reliance on short-term contracts, delivered leadership development plans for the cochlear implant clinical lead and a children's audiology service manager, rolled out Sunrise EMR electronic patient booking system to ensure families are receiving the appointments that they need on time, developed electronic clinical templates for staff in the EMR to provide consistent clinical information to staff, increased training and supervision of staff, and revision of existing procedures and, where required, developing new procedures as well.