Regional Health Services

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:23): My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister direct local health networks to revert community health services at Lucindale, Tintinara and Coonalpyn to the level they were before the changes were made earlier this year? Mr Speaker, with your leave, and the leave of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: Community health services in these towns have been downgraded and locals are not happy.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:24): I thank the member for MacKillop for his question and for his passionate interest in and advocacy on behalf of health services in the Lucindale community and also in the Limestone Coast more broadly. There is a very clear expectation from this government, in terms of our devolved health system arrangements that we have under the Health Care Act with local control through our boards, that our health networks are delivering and improving health services across South Australia, and obviously that includes the Limestone Coast and the Lucindale community.

As a government, we have increased the budget quite substantially for health services and including the Limestone Coast, where the budget is now up to over $201 million for the Limestone Coast. That is a 22.5 per cent increase up on when we came to government, under the previous government. An increase in resources has been made available, but of course we want to make sure that they are delivering results on the ground.

There has been a model of changes in terms of the Lucindale community nursing services that have occurred over the past year. That is not something that has been directed by me as the minister or us as the cabinet, or even by the health department in Adelaide—this has been through work that has happened at the local level through the Limestone Coast Local Health Network under the auspices of their governing board, and clearly there has been concern.

Obviously, I appreciate the member today bringing a delegation of some of the residents from Lucindale to meet with me, including the mayor of Naracoorte and Lucindale to meet with both myself and also the Chief Executive Officer of the Limestone Coast Local Health Network, Emma Poland. There has been a very clear commitment from the network and also from the government to listen to those concerns and to make sure that we can ensure that the services being provided to the Lucindale community meet the needs of the community.

Clearly, there is also an issue in terms of GP access, which goes to what every community in the whole country is facing at the moment with the GP crisis that we need further action from the federal government in relation to. But I think there is a clear number of matters in which further work needs to happen in terms of the Limestone Coast nursing services, one of which is clearly in relation to the frustrations that members of the community have found in terms of booking appointments to see the nurses at the Lucindale clinic. There has been some work to try to improve that, but the feedback that we have heard today is that that is still not working, and not to the satisfaction of the representatives that we met with today, so we need to do some further work to make sure that that's an efficient process where people can book in their services.

There were also concerns raised in terms of whether nurses are operating to the full extent of their scope of practice. This is something where the government has a policy position, and we want to see as many nurses as possible operating at their full scope of practice. So that is something that we need to look at further as well.

I can report that services continue to be provided at the Lucindale clinic. Year to date, in 2024 there have been 128 blood tests, 74 wound appointments and 128 vaccinations undertaken through the Lucindale clinic, which is pleasing to see, but we obviously want to make sure that they are as available as possible.

The other element I point out is, thanks to the member for MacKillop's advocacy, we undertake clinical service planning across the region, including Lucindale, and we are open. The Limestone Coast Local Health Network CEO has made it clear and is looking at whether there are options of enhancing services in Lucindale, looking at where we have had some nurse-led clinics operating elsewhere, and that is certainly a matter we will consider as part of that work for the Clinical Services Plan.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: In keeping with the Naracoorte theme, it's time to cross to one of the greatest exports from Naracoorte, the member for Adelaide.