House of Assembly Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1) 55 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Mount Gambier Hospital Mount Gambier Hospital Mr McBRIDE House of Assembly MacKillop Mount Gambier Hospital Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (15:06): My question is to the Minister for Health. Could the minister please inform the house of his visit recently to Mount Gambier on Friday 29 August, what has opened up in the Mount Gambier hospital and what it will mean for the Limestone Coast and the greater area and, importantly, for the residents and constituents of MacKillop? The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health and Wellbeing Mount Gambier Hospital The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:06): Thank you to the member for MacKillop. It was good to see him last week in Mount Gambier, where we were able to open the new short stay unit at the Mount Gambier hospital. This is an addition to the emergency department in Mount Gambier. It is the first time there has been a short stay unit in the emergency department there. This is open as of yesterday. This is operational now at Mount Gambier hospital, and it is providing, critically, additional beds for our team and, of course, additional staff going with that to make sure that they can care for the busy workload that that hospital sees, and the broader Limestone Coast community sees, as the major hospital in the region. It is particularly focused on patients who need a longer length of stay than just a short stay in the emergency department but don't necessarily need a long, lengthy stay in a ward environment. It might be for somebody who has had a fall. It might be for somebody who has had an infection and needs antibiotics. I was very happy to meet the doctors and nurses down there who have been working very hard in getting this up and running. They are very positive about the impact that this is going to have in terms of helping people in the emergency department. Of course, this was an $8 million investment from our $24 million investment that we made at the last election as an election commitment. We were able to divert that money from what was a $662 million commitment to a previous city basketball stadium, of which we said— Mr Patterson interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Morphett can leave the chamber for half an hour. The honourable member for Morphett having withdrawn from the chamber: The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health and Wellbeing The Hon. C.J. PICTON: There is clearly still some support for that $662 million basketball stadium in the house, but we decided to put that money into health, including over $100 million of it directly into Country Health, and $24 million of that to the Mount Gambier hospital. We were also able to inspect works that are underway for the new mental health beds at Mount Gambier hospital. This is going to double the mental health capacity of Mount Gambier hospital. Those beds are going to be coming online in the next few months and providing an excellent environment for people to be able to get proper mental health rehabilitation in the Limestone Coast. As well as that, the first ever drug and alcohol detox beds to be based outside of Adelaide in South Australia are going to be built as well, and we were able to inspect the works of those which are underway as well. So some really positive developments for Mount Gambier hospital are coming about through those election commitments, coming about through that $24 million. I want to thank all of the construction team who have helped deliver that, but of course the doctors and nurses who are helping to make it a reality.