Question Time

Hospital Overcrowding

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister urgently meet with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation after it today called for an immediate crisis meeting as 'Nursing staff reach crisis point over the government's failure to address overcrowding six months on from the election'? How significant a role has the recent staffing cuts he has been responsible for played in the problems that we are now facing?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:25): I would indicate that I am always happy to meet with the ANMF. That is what I did last week and I am happy to meet with them again to talk about any issues that they would like to discuss with me.

There is no doubt that the hospital network is under stress, but I think we need to appreciate two of the key factors that are leading to that. This is the first year that the hospital network has had to cope without the Repat. That means that we have about 100 less beds available in the network.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The Hon. S.G. WADE: One of my honourable colleagues who is being disorderly and interjecting is talking about the value of planning. Let me tell you about the value of planning: planning a hospital over 10 years, costing $2.4 billion—about $640 million more than you expected—and then opening it with serious design flaws. Serious design flaws are impacting exactly on the issue that the federation raises.

We've got a so-called state-of-the-art hospital where two of the resuscitation rooms are too small. How do you have emergency clinicians trying to deliver emergency care to critical patients and they can't even fit in the room?

Also one of the key problems with the design of the emergency department is that it lacks flex capacity. One thing you could say about the old Royal Adelaide Hospital is that it had plenty of opportunity to flex. When you had a surge in presentations, the emergency department was able to manage the presentations without immediately leading to ramping. One of the problems with an emergency department which doesn't have the capacity to flex is that it immediately pushes through to ambulance ramping.

The problem of the serious design flaws with the hospital is a key driver in the government's decision to engage a logistics adviser, Checkley Group, who is as we speak looking at design and capital work options to improve the flow in the hospital. It defies logic to suggest that a design of a hospital doesn't impact on patient flow. Clinicians tell us that the design of the Royal Adelaide Hospital is having a major impact on the flow of patients within the hospital. That is why we have engaged Checkley Group, the logistics adviser, to work at making sure the hospital flows.

In terms of initiatives the government has taken in the six months up till now, picking up on a suggestion of the Ambulance Employees Association, we opened a discharge lounge with a 12-person base. It gives an opportunity for people who are ready for discharge, who have finished their medical care, to wait in a supervised environment before they are discharged.

We have also added four mental health beds and we are actively recruiting to employ more. In this winter period, 40 additional beds have been added to CALHN, so there are a number of initiatives that have already been taken and more that will be taken. We will continue to work with the federation and with other employee organisations, and our employees, to make sure that we make the best of our hospital network, including a major hospital with major design flaws.