Yorketown Hospital

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:30): My question is to the Minister for Health. Were nurses involved in a scary knife attack at Yorketown Hospital recently prevented or delayed—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Sorry, member for Narungga. The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, you are on your final warning. Member for Narungga, please start the question again.

Mr ELLIS: With great pleasure. My question is to the Minister for Health. Were nurses who were involved in a scary knife attack at Yorketown Hospital recently prevented or delayed from making statements to police and, if so, is that an appropriate course of action? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: Local media report claims from the ANMF that nurses who were involved were delayed from making statements to police pending bureaucratic approval.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:31): I thank the member for Narungga for raising this very serious matter before the house and note his interest in terms of health services in his electorate and raising two questions about Yorketown Hospital this week.

This was a very concerning attack on our healthcare workers at this hospital site. Certainly, the government absolutely condemns anybody who would take action to attack one of our healthcare workers. That is why we have taken this very seriously in terms of the actions that we have taken across the board, partnering with the ANMF in terms of a 10-point plan to increase and improve security arrangements and protection for our staff, but also, of course, the parliament has passed greater penalty provisions for anybody who attacks healthcare workers.

I understand, following this attack that occurred at Yorketown Hospital, that those staff members have spoken to police, and we certainly would encourage the police to take whatever action they can under the law to make sure that the people who did this attack face the full consequences of the law. I understand as well—clearly, as the member has raised them—that the ANMF have raised concerns in terms of whether there had to be approval from the CEO of the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network. Can I make it absolutely clear that it is the government's position that any healthcare worker across the state should be able to speak to the police, particularly in relation to a matter such as this.

In an abundance of caution to make sure that these matters are clarified following the concerns raised by the ANMF, I have spoken to the Chief Executive of SA Health, Dr Robyn Lawrence, and asked her to make it clear to all chief executive officers across the state that all of our 49,000 staff are able to speak to SA Police when they need to, and particularly in a matter such as this when we want SA Police to be able to take as strong action as they possibly can against some really awful behaviour from, sadly, a member of our community who I think should face the full consequences of the law.

I hope that will clarify the concerns that have been raised by the ANMF, but I certainly am assured that the staff members have spoken and provided statements to the police, and we hope that appropriate action will be able to be taken.