Emergency Departments

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. What does the minister say to patients in South Australian public hospitals who are not seen within clinically acceptable timeframes? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: The latest Public Hospital Report Card by the Australian Medical Association shows that more than six out of 10 people are not seen in time when they present with an urgent medical issue at our state's emergency departments, with the report showing that:

…emergency departments were performing at the lowest levels in recent memory, with this year's reporting period showing even further declines.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:44): That is why we are building a bigger health system. That's why we are investing in our healthcare system to make sure that there is more capacity for increasing numbers of patients who are coming to receive treatment in our emergency departments. That's why we are tackling the issue where for decades we haven't seen additional beds committed in a large way in our hospital system.

Already we have opened hundreds of extra beds with hundreds of additional beds to come across our hospital system to make sure we address what is called 'access block'. This is where patients have been in our emergency departments, have received treatment by our emergency department doctors and nurses and are waiting for another bed elsewhere in our hospital system but are stuck waiting for that other bed and then that deprives the next patient either coming from the ambulance or the waiting room into that emergency department cubicle. That delays the care for people who need it.

That is the critical issue. If you talk to any of our doctors and nurses groups, they will outline that as to why we face delays in our emergency departments and that's why we are so focused on tackling that issue. It is why we have opened additional beds. That is why, through the course of this year, we have more additional beds coming. That is why there is a big focus in our plans on mental health capacity with four upgrades to mental health coming through the course of this year at Noarlunga, Flinders, The QEH and Modbury to substantially increase our capacity for mental health because we know that that is one of the drivers of that access block and delay for other patients in our system. That has not been tackled by successive governments, Liberal or Labor, for a very long period of time.

We know, of course, there are other factors that we need to tackle as well. We know it is harder for people to get access to primary care when they need it. We are providing additional options for people in our community, whether that's 24-hour pharmacies, whether that's our health avoidance hubs we have established at The QEH, at Lyell McEwin Hospital, at the Repat or Sefton Park. People can get access to health care without having to go to a hospital, whether it's our virtual care services as well or working with the commonwealth on Medicare Urgent Care Clinics so people can get access to a range of those services without having to wait in an emergency department.

We also know how critical exiting the hospital system is as well. As of this moment, we have over 260 patients in our hospital system who are medically cleared for discharge, have had an ACAT assessment, who are ready to go to aged care but we can't get them into aged care. That has much more than doubled in the space of 18 months. That's bigger than the equivalent of Modbury Hospital taken up by patients who no longer need to be in the hospital system. We need to work further with the federal government to do that.

We are also taking matters into our own hands. We have reopened what was going to be sold off at Hampstead to accommodate many of these patients who otherwise would be taking up acute hospital beds. We are even using beds in the Pullman for some of these patients who are medically cleared to leave hospital but can't leave the hospital system yet because they don't have the appropriate supports to go to.

With every possible measure along the way, we are trying to reduce that pressure on our emergency departments, free up that access block, and provide other avenues of care for people so they don't need to wait in an emergency department. That is not only a big contrast to what we saw under the previous government but a policy vacuum. This is an absolutely policy-focused approach from this government in terms of tackling every element of the system. We haven't heard any objections to any one of those measures that the government is taking. We haven't heard any other proposals or suggestions. We await them if that ever happens.