Elective Surgery

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:41): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health a question in relation to elective surgery.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: I refer to the minister's assertion yesterday that:

…the key thing is that for those people that are suffering from an ailment or a condition that requires urgent surgical attention or urgent specialist attention [they] almost always get it with zero waiting time…

How can this statement be true when yesterday there were 170 patients at metropolitan hospitals who needed urgent category 1 elective surgery, which is surgery within 30 days, who had been waiting for more than 30 days?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (14:42): I thank the honourable member for her question because it gives me an opportunity to put on the record some impressive statistics when it comes to waiting times for outpatient waiting lists. I was making those comments on radio yesterday in the context of the article that appeared in The Advertiser that referred to outpatient waiting times, so let's talk about a few of these.

In the case of urgent outpatient services in the context of ophthalmology, let's look at the waiting times. I am advised that, in respect of Flinders Medical Centre, there are zero patients waiting who have urgent need. The average waiting time is zero days. At the Royal Adelaide, the urgent number of patients waiting is zero. The average days they wait is zero. At the Lyell McEwin Hospital, the number of patients waiting for urgent ophthalmology services is zero. The average waiting time is zero.

At the Women's and Children's Hospital, the number of patients waiting for urgent ophthalmology services is zero. I am advised that the average days waiting at the Women's and Children's Hospital for ophthalmology urgent services is zero.

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: A trend?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: I think there is a trend there. Let's talk about orthopaedics. The number of outpatients waiting for urgent services at the Flinders Medical Centre is zero; Royal Adelaide, zero; Lyell McEwin, zero; Women's and Children's Hospital, zero. These are just some examples of the waiting times. At Flinders Medical Centre, cardiology, urgent, number of people waiting, zero; Royal Adelaide, zero; Women's and Children's, zero. There are some outstanding numbers that I think the government and our health department and everyone who works within it can be very proud of when it comes to outpatient waiting times.

It is also true that in routine cases there are some waiting time numbers that aren't okay and that can be improved upon, but they are predominantly in the case of routine services. We need to get that number down. We acknowledge that there is always room to improve. We are mature enough to do that because we are serious about improving public health care in this state. When things are not going that well or if there are areas for improvement, you acknowledge it and then you make an effort to try to address it, and that is exactly what we are doing. It stands in stark contrast to members opposite, who are preoccupied only with creating fear and distrust in our very, very capable men and women who are working within our health service in this state.

We are happy to acknowledge areas where improvement is required and invest effort and resources in trying to achieve that. When it comes to investment, we know that we have a $1.1 billion pipeline for investment in our public hospital network to make sure that we are doing everything we can to put downward pressure on these waiting lists. We are serious about making sure that everyone in our state gets access to an outstanding level of health care. We are getting on with delivering that. Part of that is noticing where we can improve and then making the effort to do it.