Yorketown Nurses' Quarters

The SPEAKER: Now the moment the students from Narungga have been waiting for: your local member, your representative in here, has the floor and the call. Member for Narungga.

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:19): I dare say the whole chamber has been waiting for it, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Health. Can the minister please provide an update on the Yorketown nurses' quarters? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: The Yorketown hospital nurses' quarters are not currently in use and have exposed asbestos that is potentially exposing local health workers to danger. The nurses' quarters could well be repurposed and provide a tremendously attractive proposition in trying to secure health professionals to our regional hospitals, and the LHN needs some help removing that asbestos and repurposing those quarters.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:20): Thank you very much to the member for Narungga. I note his very significant passion for his local health services and, in particular, the Yorketown hospital. I am very familiar with the Yorketown nurses' quarters, having visited Yorketown hospital last year as one of the 53 hospitals across the state I have had the chance to visit in the past two years. The Minister for Human Services also informs me that she once stayed there as a nurse herself, in the nurses' quarters; we won't make guesses as to how many years ago that was.

The Hon. N.F. Cook: Very, very recently.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Very recently, I'm sure. As the member outlines, the nurses' quarters at Yorketown are in a very poor state of repair. This is a building that has a significant amount of asbestos in it. This is something that the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network has been looking into in terms of whether there can be some repurposing, as the member suggests, of the nurses' quarters for a better purpose.

The initial advice that I have—and I will get more fulsome advice—is that it is unlikely, given the state of the building, that it could be repurposed for another purpose. It is likely that the ultimate fate of the nurses' quarters is that it will have to be demolished, and then something else put there down the track in the future. Obviously, given the amount of asbestos that is in place there, it would be a considerable task and expense to do so. That is being worked through by the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network at the moment.

I am aware that there have also been some particular minor works that have had to happen to stabilise the safety of the nurses' quarters at the moment. In particular, the roof of the nurses' quarters was in disrepair and was identified as a safety risk during periods of strong winds. Minor works have recently been completed to safeguard the roof, including the removal of several dislodged pieces that had deteriorated in recent years. As I said, the executive and the board of the local health network are working through longer-term plans, noting that the likely fate of the building, given that it is in such a state of disrepair, is that it would likely have to be demolished.