Port Pirie Community Health Administration Building

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Stuart) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister update my community on the current situation with the Port Pirie Regional Health Service allied health building? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain a bit further.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: Recently in the media, on 9 May, it was stated that approximately 100 staff had to be relocated from the building. It would be appreciated if the minister could advise the reason for the relocation, what routine maintenance was previously carried out, and whether there were any official complaints regarding the building previously.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:26): I thank the member for Stuart for his question and his passion for local health services. As the member said, there has been an issue identified by the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network in relation to the old community health building located on the Port Pirie Hospital campus.

I understand that within the Port Pirie community there are a number of issues regarding pigeons, and this is certainly one building that has sustained pigeon issues within it. There have been a number of issues raised over recent years about how to address this, and the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network have been trying a number of measures to contain and manage the pigeons. I am informed those have included using various types of repellent devices such as ultrasonic and strobe lights. All of that has come to nothing, and there is still quite a significant pigeon issue there.

Following a number of complaints that were made recently, I am advised that Yorke and Northern Local Health Network undertook some more examinations, looking into the roof cavity and finding that there were significant issues inside, above the ceiling. At that stage they undertook to do some testing and to relocate the staff who were in that building. The staff members who are in the building are predominantly community health staff; it is predominantly their office accommodation. There is one drop-in mental health service within the building, but the other services largely go out into the community to provide their services.

Those community health staff have been relocated elsewhere, and there is work being undertaken at the moment between the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network and the Department for Infrastructure and Transport to try to find more medium-term solutions for where they can go. Meanwhile, there is more testing being done. I understand the first batch of testing that came back in relation to bacterial testing was within normal limits, but there is further testing that is going to be undertaken, and we are expecting the results of that within coming weeks as well.

This is being taken seriously to make sure we do everything possible, and certainly it is my expectation of the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network Board and its management that they do everything possible in terms of maintaining their assets, but that if issues are identified then they make sure that staff safety is paramount. Obviously that is why these precautions are being taken.

Just this morning, I met with the Department for Health and Wellbeing's infrastructure team and asked them to make inquiries of the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network maintenance staff to make sure that everything that can possibly be done is being done in terms of this matter, and also to make sure that we can learn from this incident in terms of future management of our assets not only in that area but right across the state as well.