Elective Surgery

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:43): My supplementary question is: can the minister explain why the spike in elective surgery occurred in the month of the move to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, because that indicates it has got nothing to do with the flu. It has got all to do with the fact that the government ramped down elective surgery to facilitate a move at that time and then within 10 days had to launch the hospital emergency plan, which cancelled elective surgery right across metropolitan Adelaide, and South Australians are continuing to endure the consequences of that with a blowout in elective surgery waiting times?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (14:44): This keeps getting better. On one level, Mr President, I think to myself, ‘Maybe you should start listening to the supplementary questions to make sure they comply with standing orders,’ but then they start speaking and I think, ‘Bring it on.’ I was very clear from the outset, when these questions started to be raised, that there were a number of factors that contributed to what is occurring with elective surgery across our system. There were a number of factors including, of course, the government’s substantial and decent policy decisions that were made despite the opposition from the member opposite and those opposite generally.

It is true to say that the government made a very deliberate and wise decision to see a ramp down in elective surgeries in preparation for the move to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. My advice is that that resulted in approximately 186 elective surgery procedures being postponed across the system. However, that is a small number, I am advised, in comparison to what we saw as a consequence of the extraordinary flu season that we have been subject to.

If the Hon. Mr Wade wants to stand up and guarantee that if he is ever health minister in this state he can guarantee what numbers will occur in terms of flu, then let him go ahead. We, on the other hand, make sure that we deal with these circumstances as they arise as best as we possibly can. We don’t turn people away from our hospitals when they are in need of urgent medical attention. We don’t look around for conspiracy theories to try to ascertain why it is the case; instead, we make sure that they get access to the best possible health care that can be provided in world-class facilities. They are world-class facilities that those opposite seem perpetually opposed to despite the obvious evidence that those facilities are doing a good job.