Emergency Departments

Ms PRATT (Frome) (14:17): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Is the minister taking any action to address the concerns raised by the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association in its report to SafeWork SA about staff safety and wellbeing? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms PRATT: On 15 June The Advertiser published an article called 'wild west' of hospital care, where, upon inspection of the Flinders Medical Centre, emergency department clinicians warned it is now inherently unsafe for patients and staff. Management staff reported that, and I quote, it would be 'pointless and would appear tokenistic if they checked in on the staff'.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:18): Yes, this government is taking action and we are building hundreds of extra hospital beds across the system. In addition to that, we are also hiring hundreds and hundreds of extra doctors and nurses into our system.

I am delighted to inform the parliament, if they hadn't noticed in the budget that was delivered last sitting week, that we are going even further than what we had previously committed to in now opening additional fast-tracked beds that will be open by the end of next year at The QEH and at Lyell McEwin Hospital to make sure we have more capacity in our system as well.

The issues that are identified in the member's question come about because we don't have the capacity for patients to get through the system. We have—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Frome!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: We have clearly committed from day one that we need to build additional beds—and that is exactly what we are doing—to make sure that patients who are stuck in the emergency department can get through to the inpatient beds that they need. That can free up the emergency department for the next patients who need it and for the ones coming in from the waiting room or the ambulance ramp as well. If we don't have those additional beds, which the Leader of the Opposition has said are probably wasted money, then that pressure is just going to build and build and build.

On a daily basis, we have well over 100 patients at the moment who are in emergency departments, who are being seen by the emergency department team, who are waiting for a ward bed to go to, and we simply don't have those ward beds available. So that's why we are building these additional beds.

Through the course of this year, we will have opened 150 extra beds into the system. Now, with the additional funding announced in the budget last sitting week, we will have towards the end of next year 330 extra beds that we will have opened across the system, which is absolutely what's needed to make sure that we've got the capacity for patients to get the care that they need and also to free up our emergency departments that are obviously under pressure. In addition to that, of course, we need to make sure that people who don't need to be in hospital any longer can get out of hospital and can get other care in the community.

On a daily basis at the moment, we've got about 200 patients in our system who no longer need to be in hospital, who are medically ready for discharge but are stuck waiting for aged care or waiting for NDIS care. That's why we have made this a key priority in terms of our negotiations along with every other health minister, state and territory, across the country in raising it with the federal government. That's why we have also prioritised funding that we are receiving through national cabinet to go directly to this point to provide additional assistance for aged-care providers through geriatric flying squads, so doctors and nurses can provide outgoing support for those patients who are leaving hospital to get the care that they need in aged care so they don't get stuck in hospital and then cause that flow through the system to be blocked for the patients who need it coming through the front door as well.

Of course, at the other end of the system, we continue to advocate for needs in terms of primary care as well. While we do have additional options now in place, particularly around Medicare urgent care clinics, 24-hour pharmacies, as well as additional help that's available through Healthdirect, we do need more primary care and, particularly, we need to address the workforce challenges. That is why one of the big priorities that we are working on with all states and territories and the commonwealth is making sure that, particularly for countries like the UK where they have respected systems in place for doctors, we can fast-track those doctors through with appropriate checks, but without bureaucracy delay, to make sure that they can come and work in South Australia to be GPs, to be doctors in our hospitals, as we are expanding our healthcare system right across the state.