Health System, Winter Demand

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:45): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Does the minister guarantee that there will be no system-wide Code Yellows called this winter? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: SASMOA said last week at the health services committee, 'I don't think we are ready for winter.'

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:46): Certainly, the government is doing every single thing possible to make sure that we are prepared for winter, but more than that to expand the capacity of our health system. We released a winter plan just a couple of weeks ago, which outlined measures that we are taking across the system to make sure we can expand our capacity to be able to cater for an expected increase in winter demand that we will see. This is in stark contrast to the previous government, where I think in one out of four years there was a winter plan put in place.

The measures include a number of additional beds that we will be opening across the health system. The Premier referred to a number of those. We are utilising every possible additional capacity to make sure that we have additional room for patients to be seen. We are doing this at a time that we are seeing an increasing number of patients who are stuck in our system waiting for a commonwealth aged-care place. That number has more than doubled. It is now over 250 patients who are stuck in our beds. That is the equivalent of more than the size of Modbury Hospital taken out of our system waiting for aged care, which is a significant issue.

Despite that, we are using every possible lever to expand our capacity and make sure that people can get seen through the winter period. Of course, it's a timely reminder for people to make sure that they are doing everything possible as well to prepare for winter, firstly, in terms of influenza vaccines, secondly, in terms of COVID vaccines and, thirdly, in terms of RSV, where there is now going to be a program for protection for pregnant women and ultimately for babies where that vaccine wasn't taken up in the first instance available this year. So there are a number of measures in place that will be available to make sure that people can stay well, can stay healthy and not need to be in our hospital system this winter.