House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Regional Hospital Helipads Regional Hospital Helipads Ms PRATT House of Assembly Frome Regional Hospital Helipads Ms PRATT (Frome) (14:39): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Has construction on all regional helipads been completed? Mr Telfer interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Flinders can leave until the end of question time. The honourable member for Flinders having withdrawn from the chamber: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Can you start the question again? I cannot hear. Ms PRATT House of Assembly Frome Ms PRATT: My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Has construction on all regional helipads been completed and, if so, are they all operational? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain. Leave granted. Ms PRATT House of Assembly Frome Ms PRATT: MedSTAR pilots are reported to be landing at the Clare aerodrome instead of at the Clare Hospital helipad. The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health and Wellbeing The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:39): We are very delighted to have this question in terms of our program for upgrading the helipads at our regional hospitals. I thank the Treasurer for his support of this project in the state budget, which is a very substantial project. I think there are about a dozen upgrades to helipads that the state government is delivering. The question is: is that program finished? Absolutely not. There are still works continuing. This is going to make a meaningful difference in terms of making sure that we have those helipads available at our regional hospitals, which provide a vital link between those hospitals and our metropolitan hospitals. We are prioritising this work as fast as possible, and it is in stark contrast to the fact that this issue was known about by the previous government. Ms Pratt interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Frome, you have asked your question. Can you stop yelling out while we are trying to listen to the answer? Thank you. The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health and Wellbeing The Hon. C.J. PICTON: This issue was known about by the previous government, and they did nothing about it. There was no money in the budget to address it. There was no program to address this. We are actually addressing it. At the same time, we have also signed a new contract for our helicopter services. I commend the work of the Treasurer and also the Minister for Emergency Services because, through this contract, we are going to be getting additional fleet, better fleet, which will enable more of the state to be accessed by our MedSTAR and helicopter service, which will save lives—ultimately, this is what this is about. It will mean faster access to more areas of the state through a helicopter service. So we will have better helicopters, more helicopters and better helipads through the investment this government is making.