Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Does the minister agree with statements from the Ambulance Employees Association and the Salaried Medical Officers Association that ramping in hospitals under this Liberal government is worse than it has ever been in our state?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:20): I agree with the Ambulance Employees Association and SASMOA that it will require long-term and sustained efforts by this government and by its stakeholders to remedy the serious situation at our hospitals in relation to hospital demand. Clearly, one of the symptoms of that is the ramping on our hospital ramps that occurs from time to time, but the reality is that the stakeholders meetings that we have had in recent months consistently supported the fact that we need a series of strategies, short term, medium term and long term.

The government has already been active in increasing bed capacity. In recent months we have made 30 beds available in country hospitals, 20 beds in the private system, 11 mental health beds and only last week announced the opening of 20 beds for long-term patients at the Repat, as well as committing to ongoing funding for 20 beds at the ACH.

Certainly, we are continuing to experience hospital demand which is putting pressure on our system. That is hardly surprising, considering the situation we inherited from the former Labor government. Within the next week we celebrate, or shall we say commemorate, the former government's breaking of its promise that it would never, ever close the Repat, with a net loss of 100 beds. There is no doubt that the loss of those beds—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Hunter, order! And some of that language was a bit unparliamentary, too.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —significantly contributed to the pressure that the system is under now. In relation to capacity, though, I would remind the honourable members that I have consistently stated that dealing with hospital demand will not just be a matter of capacity, it will also be a matter of flow.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Tell that to the patients that have been ramped because of your incompetence. Tell them they've got to wait for the flow to be fixed.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter, you have ample time to ask questions over the next hour.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Don't engage, the Hon. Mr Stephens. You two can leave if you wish to have a private conversation. The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: As I was saying, the government has taken action to increase capacity, but as Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation highlighted on this morning's radio, it is not just a matter of capacity. She made this statement:

It seems that throwing more beds at the problem is not the single solution. We never said it would be, and we never expected it would be. But what we need is some rapid action on those other strategies, such as keeping people out of hospital and moving people through the system seamlessly.

That is why the government is engaging with employee organisations and with our department on a whole range of short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies.

I have already mentioned the short-term strategies in terms of country patients and private beds; we have medium-term strategies in terms of the interhospital transfer taskforce; and there is a series of long-term strategies particularly focused on forensic mental health and the mental health nursing workforce.

This situation has been fundamentally delivered to the people of South Australia by 16 years of Labor mismanagement of health. It will take more than a few months for this government to get the health system humming as it should be, but that's what we will do.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter, I heard you the first time. Order! Sit down, minister. Would you like to continue?

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I've finished.

The PRESIDENT: You have finished. The Hon. Mr Hunter, I missed that last bit. It might well have been important.