Legislative Council Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1) 54 1 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time Modbury Hospital Modbury Hospital The Hon. K.J. MAHER Legislative Council Leader of the Opposition Modbury Hospital The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:44): Supplementary question: can the health minister name one single specialist who thinks his idea to establish a stand-alone HDU at Modbury, against what appears to be departmental advice, is a good idea? One single specialist; can he name one? The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: That's the question, Leader of the Opposition. Minister. The Hon. K.J. Maher Legislative Council The Hon. K.J. Maher: Just one. The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: Order! You've asked your question. Allow the minister to speak. The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council Minister for Health and Wellbeing The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:44): The fact of the matter is that we have received a large range of submissions from clinicians, particularly— The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting: The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: Order! You've had your chance at asking a question. We are taking up time from the crossbench. Minister, please respond to the question. The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council The Hon. S.G. WADE: The fact of the matter is that we have received a consistent stream of support from clinicians, particularly in the Modbury Hospital, to be frank. The Modbury Hospital is very keen for this restoration because what they believe is that the people of the north-east are entitled to a genuine community hospital. Unlike the former Labor government which turned this facility into basically a geriatric care and rehabilitation unit, the fact of the matter is that— The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting: The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council The Hon. S.G. WADE: The fact of the matter is that the advice that we have taken and the advice that we will act on is a whole range of clinical advice— The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting: The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: Restrain yourself, Leader of the Opposition. The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council The Hon. S.G. WADE: But I want to stress for the Leader of the Opposition that we are not proposing to open a high dependency unit today. What the Liberal Party policy said, and is quite clear in saying, is that we want to do a fundamental reassessment of the services in the north-east and we want to transfer back a range of complex surgery that was taken away from the Modbury Hospital, transferred particularly to the Lyell McEwin but also to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. As I said in relation to my first answer, so that we can not only increase the range of complex patients who can receive the current range of services but also so that we can provide higher complexity surgery to a whole range of patients. So, we believe that there will be a fundamental reallocation of services towards the Modbury Hospital and that will justify a HDU. We never said that we would open a HDU on day one. We made it clear in our policy and that is a policy that we will implement. The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: I am not going to allow you further— The Hon. K.J. MAHER Legislative Council The Hon. K.J. MAHER: This is in relation to the original answer and it will be a very quick question. The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: No, you've had a fair go. We have had 30 minutes into question time, Leader of the Opposition, and I am keen to get to the crossbench. We have one from the Liberal Party. The Hon. Mr Hood, I call you to your feet.