Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:15): My question again is to the Premier. Will this year be South Australia's worst winter of ramping? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: The ABC reported last week that the head of South Australia's ambulance employees union, Paul Ekkelboom, said May's record ramping figures of 4,791 hours have given him grave concerns about the winter months ahead, and the government has now recorded the 36 worst months of ramping in South Australia's history.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:16): As the Premier has outlined already, this is a government that is committed to doing every single thing that we possibly can to open up more capacity and to make sure that patients can get through the system and get the health care that they need. Evidence of that, of course, was on the weekend when we officially opened those 70 CO-ACT beds at Hampstead, a site that was previously going to be closed and sold off. It was in the budget for that to do so, and the Treasurer and the government had to reverse that sale to be able to keep those beds there.

Through the course of this year, we also have significant extra beds that are coming online right across the system. At Lyell McEwin Hospital, we are converting areas of the hospital that were previously used for administration. The builders have been through there, turning those into brand-new patient care areas so that we can expand the number of beds at Lyell McEwin Hospital. Similarly at The QEH, an area that previously had been a ward space got converted to an outpatient space. We are going through and moving those outpatient areas elsewhere so that we can return that area to open up over 30 beds there at The QEH.

We are opening three additional fully staffed large mental health wards across the state this year at The QEH, at Modbury Hospital and also at Noarlunga Hospital. In addition, at Noarlunga Hospital, we are opening an additional 24-bed acute ward there as well. We are opening an expanded mental health unit at Flinders as well. That is all coming through the course of this year. There is a lot of investment coming through the course of this year.

In addition to that, we have even had to use space in the Pullman hotel, where we have contracted to be able to provide clinical care because, as the Premier outlined, we have so many people who are stuck in the system waiting to get out, to get to the next level of care, who do not need to be in hospital anymore. Those over 200 patients who are stuck, who have had their ACAT assessments and have been told that they need aged care who we cannot get out—it is not only a bad outcome for those patients to be in hospital a lot longer than they need to be but, of course, it also means that the next patient coming from the emergency department cannot come through to those beds.

While, when it comes to ramping and flow issues, there are 100 different things that need to be done right through the system that we are addressing, the key pinch point is those patients every morning who are stuck in the emergency department waiting for a ward bed who we cannot get into a ward bed. There are well over 100 patients every day who need access to a ward bed but they are not available.

So we are going to continue to open up additional beds. We are going to continue to put pressure on the commonwealth in terms of meeting their responsibilities of making sure that those aged-care patients can get out. That means we can free up the emergency departments, and that means we can free up both the ambulance ramp and the waiting room for those people who need emergency department care.

What wouldn't help is if we went down the approach of what the opposition leader has been talking about, which is cutting the health budget. When he was asked, 'Well, how are you going to round this issue where you are saying you want to increase spending, you want to reduce the debt and reduce taxes', he immediately jumped to the health budget. He immediately jumped to health expenditure as his answer for that subject. So we know what they will return to, which is cuts to health, cuts to our frontline doctors and nurses, and we can't see a repeat of that—

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat. Deputy Leader.

Mr TEAGUE: Point of order on standing order 98a: it is clearly debating the matter. It is not addressing the substance of the question, about the worst winter in the history of ramping.

The SPEAKER: From my recollection, the question asked the minister to gaze into a crystal ball to work out whether this was going to be the worst winter we have had. Given that we are only in June, it's probably a little bit hard for him to give the answer to that. I think, like the Premier was in his answer to the first question, the minister was explaining how South Australia got to this point and explaining how the government is trying to get South Australia into an improved situation.

I am keen to hear some more from the health minister and a little—a lot less, actually—from the member for Hammond and the member for Unley, because I am actually finding it hard to hear the Minister for Health above the interjections, which I remind members are unparliamentary and disorderly.

Mr Telfer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Flinders, you do not need to be adding to the noise level. Minister for Health.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: The last point I will make is that this is a government that has added almost 2,800 extra clinical staff above attrition, as opposed to our predecessors, who made hundreds of nurses redundant during a global pandemic.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Let's keep it down; it is your leader who has the call.