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) (14:57): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. What is the cause of any delays to the use of regional hospital helipads and when will they be ready for patient retrieval? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain. Leave granted. Ms PRATT House of Assembly Frome Ms PRATT: Currently helipads in Clare, Berri, Loxton, Mannum, Murray Bridge, Port Broughton, Port Pirie and Victor Harbor remain non-operational. 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) (14:58): I thank the member for Frome for her question. As members will know, this government inherited a situation where helipads were significantly out of date and were not compliant with CASA regulations and we needed to make an investment in terms of upgrading helipads across the state. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for Hammond, you are on your final warning. Mr Pederick House of Assembly Hammond Mr Pederick: Thank you. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: You're welcome. The Hon. C.J. PICTON House of Assembly Kaurna Minister for Health and Wellbeing The Hon. C.J. PICTON: So we made a decision to invest $23 million in upgrading those helipads across the state. Of those 13 helipads, I am delighted to report that we have now opened, as of today, the seventh of those helipads across the state with the opening of the Berri helipad at the Riverland General Hospital. That's in addition to Wallaroo, Kingscote (in the Speaker's electorate), Meningie, Balaklava, Kapunda and Port Broughton. That's half of the project that has been delivered and opened. What has to happen in relation to these helipads is not only the construction of the helipad, but we have to get the helicopter operator to certify its use. At the moment, the helicopter operator is Babcock. They are the helicopter operator up until the time at which, in a year or so's time, Toll will be taking over as the helicopter operator. They have won the new contract and will be bringing in new helicopters. Up until that time we are still operating with Babcock, and we need them to sign-off on each of those helipads. So it's not a matter in which I can declare that these helipads are open; we need Babcock to do so. We are working with Babcock in a very detailed manner on each of those remaining six helipads to make sure that we can get those helipads open as soon as possible. I have met with the CEO of Babcock and the Babcock team, and they have agreed to work with us very closely to address issues in terms of CASA regulations. Part of the issue has been that CASA regulations have kept changing and have kept updating through this process, so we are seeking to make sure that we can meet those new regulations that are currently in place for those helicopters and meet the requirements of the Babcock helicopter pilots, and their safety requirements as well. I have asked Wayne Champion, who is the CEO of the Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network, to coordinate this effort on behalf of all of the local health networks. That work has been going well, and we are hopeful that we will see further progress, on top of these seven helipads that we have already opened, in the coming weeks and months.