Aged-Care Facilities Audit

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:22): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: Last month, on 20 September, I asked the minister specific questions about a tender process the government was undertaking for an external audit of all 45 of the state government-run residential aged-care facilities and multipurpose services facilities in regional and remote South Australia. The audit was in the wake of the Oakden aged-care scandal and subsequent investigation and damning report by ICAC.

The expected start date for the audit was August this year, with an expected end date of April next year, with the preferred tenderer expected to spend a minimum of two days at each facility. The minister undertook at the time to get back to me with information as to whether that contract had been finalised. I recently received further information that after the day I asked my original question several companies that had submitted tenders received notification that they had been unsuccessful. This has sparked some alarm in the industry that the government might have done an eleventh-hour backflip and returned to the drawing board on the audit process and/or criteria. My questions are:

1. Can the minister confirm that the contract has now been awarded, and if so, to whom?

2. What was the cause of the delay for the contract being awarded?

3. When is the contractor now due to report back to the government?

4. If the contract is yet to be awarded, what is the minister doing to progress the audit and to reassure the people of South Australia that the harrowing events that took place at Oakden are not going to be repeated in our regional and country nursing homes, including Indigenous settlements?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:24): I thank the honourable member for her question. If there was an implication in there that perhaps the project had been abandoned, that's certainly not my understanding. I will certainly take on notice the detailed questions the honourable member asks. The honourable member highlights the difference between the former Labor government and this government. The former Labor government, over 10 years, managed to completely mismanage the Older Persons Mental Health Service, and Oakden resulted.

In contrast, during the election campaign, the Marshall Liberal team became aware of a gap in coverage, particularly in relation to services such as multipurpose services. So we undertook in government, even though it wasn't a statutory duty, to do an assessment of residential aged-care services in South Australia. The government will continue to take what measures it believes are necessary to assure itself and the people of South Australia that the services we provide to older South Australians are safe and of quality. After all, people, particularly in country South Australia more than any other region in the state, put their trust in the government of South Australia to provide residential aged-care services.

As I think I have mentioned to this house before, Country Health SA is the largest provider of residential aged care in country South Australia and one of the largest in the state. We need to be continually developing our systems to ensure quality and safety. In that regard, I would like to thank the Hon. Frank Pangallo for facilitating my access to a briefing yesterday about one of the emerging technologies that are available to provide assurance in terms of CCTV in aged-care facilities.

Whereas the previous government continued to discount the possibility of CCTV having value in aged-care facilities, this government is keen to look at what's possible, not what's not possible. I thank the honourable member for facilitating the briefing together with Oakden families because it is important that we take whatever steps necessary both in terms of accreditation and similar mechanisms but also in terms of the capital assets themselves in terms of security. There may well be opportunities to improve quality of care through mechanisms such as CCTV.