Hydrotherapy Services

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:51): I seek leave to make an explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Health on the subject of hydrotherapy services at Flinders and the Repat.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Hydrotherapy services at the old Flinders pool and the Repat pool have been used by approximately 200 people at Flinders and nearly 300 at the Repat—and I must declare that I am a former employee of the latter. Amongst these people are acute patients using it for rehabilitation as well as some self-help individuals who are managing their own chronic conditions.

In August the government faced a public backlash and was forced to backflip on an announcement made that the new Flinders pool, to open in November, would primarily be for acute patients; the government admitted that it underestimated how many self-help users made use of the services. As a result of this backflip, the government has agreed to provide access to the new pool to current self-help users; however, the sessions offered—three per day for five days a week plus one on Saturday mornings, with 17 spots in total—accommodate a total of 272 people, far short of the approximately 500 that use the services weekly. Furthermore, advice from constituents is that they are no longer able to book a spot on an ongoing basis. My questions are:

1. Can the minister confirm that there are only three sessions per day available to the community-based hydrotherapy pool users and only 272 spots per week?

2. How is this honouring the government's commitment to provide access for those existing self-help users?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (14:53): I thank the honourable member for her important question, providing me with the opportunity to refer, yet again, to the in excess of $180 million investment this state government has made in the Flinders Medical Centre—which, of course, includes a brand-new hydrotherapy pool that will be of extraordinary benefit to the people who use those facilities. In fact, I have had the chance to see that pool while being there with patients who will be the type to benefit from it, and they are very excited at the prospect of being able to use a brand-new facility.

It always perplexes me that those opposite seem to be fundamentally opposed to the modernising of our health system. Whether it be changes in and around SALHN, whether it be investments we are making at The QEH, or whether it be the branding of a brand-new, world-class hospital, there always seems to be a way for the opposition to find something to criticise. Despite that, we are pressing on with making sure that people in South Australia don't get access to buildings that were built in the fifties or sixties, but instead get modernised healthcare facilities.

In response to the specific nature of the honourable member's question, it won't surprise the general community that our primary function at SA Health is to look after those people who are within our care. That is what will be occurring at the brand-new hydrotherapy pool. To the extent there is additional capacity available when that pool is not being used by patients who are under our immediate care, we will be working to make that access available. There have already been extensive discussions that have taken place with many of those self-help users to try to accommodate their requests.

We are also hopeful, and have had discussions with the ACH Group, that the existing pool (the old pool) at the Repat could continue to be made available to public services into the future, but that of course is principally a matter for ACH. We have been working with ACH to try to facilitate that, and we look forward to ACH potentially making announcements about that in due course.

Nevertheless, the government's priority remains making sure that those people who are in the care of SA Health, those people who are currently patients of SA Health, who need access to hydrotherapy services get it at the brand-new pool and that where we have additional capacity and have the ability to be able to provide for self-help users to gain access that we accommodate that accordingly.