Regional Hospital Helipads

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Health. Minister, will the government expedite making regional helipads operational, following the death in the Riverland? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr WHETSTONE: On 20 September at 9pm, Mrs Jane Logos suffered a heart attack and was taken to the Berri regional hospital. An air ambulance was called to transfer her to the Flinders Medical Centre, but this wasn't upgraded to an emergency retrieval until 1.27am. Ms Logos wasn't transferred to the Renmark Airport until after 4am and tragically passed away on the tarmac. The Berri regional hospital helipad is still undergoing upgrades and testing that were announced in March of last year.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:01): I thank the member for his question, and obviously I express my condolences to Mrs Logos's family on her passing, which is obviously deeply disturbing and concerning for everyone in their family and, no doubt, the broader community. The first thing to say, in addition to that, and as I have just outlined in the previous answer, is that as of today we have now opened the Berri helipad. That helipad is open, it is operational, and the Riverland General Hospital was able to use it. So that is welcome news for people in the local community.

The second thing to say is that, in terms of what happened with Mrs Logos's care, I can provide some information. Mrs Logos, I am advised, presented to the hospital. When she presented to the hospital, cardiac issues were identified and we used our iCCnet capability, which is how we connect our regional health services across the state with our cardiology teams in Adelaide to make sure that we can get proper assessments and care for people with cardiac issues, no matter where they are in the state. People may be familiar with it. This was the legacy of Phil Tideman and his work across the state to improve care outcomes.

As part of that work and the care that Mrs Logos was receiving, there was a decision made that a non-emergency transfer should be issued. That request was put in to MedSTAR to enable it to be put into the system. A couple of hours later, I am advised, the clinicians then decided that her condition had become such that that request was escalated to an emergency MedSTAR retrieval decision, and therefore that request was put in to MedSTAR at an emergency level. I am advised that originally 11.04pm was when the non-urgent request was made, and that then, at 1.50am, due to deterioration in the condition, it was then again contacted to MedSTAR to enable a emergency request. That was a fixed-wing retrieval that was being put in place, to the airport. Obviously you can't land planes at any helipad, even though at that stage it was still under construction anyway.

The SAAS crew arrived at the hospital to transport the patient at 3.34, and at 3.56 an intensive care paramedic arrived at the hospital to assist with the administration of an infusion during the transport. SAAS then transferred Mrs Logos to the airport to meet the plane and unfortunately she passed away at that time.

I know SAAS and MedSTAR and the hospital have reached out to her family to offer support but also to enable further discussion of the family's concerns and answer any questions and address any issues that they have, and certainly I would be happy to do so as well. But my understanding is that her condition was very serious at the stage that she was being transported, but I think that that's something which would be best for our clinicians to discuss with the family one on one and do so in a very sensitive way.