KordaMentha report

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (15:17): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding bed closures.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: The KordaMentha diagnostic report refers to an interim strategy of CALHN that includes:

Flex down 90 beds by June 2019, commencing with 40 winter beds. Target Benefit $7.9 million.

My question to the minister is: when will the government close these 90 hospital beds in the next seven months, including specifically the immediate closure of 40 winter beds, as stated in corporate liquidator KordaMentha's diagnostic report to government?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:18): I will certainly take it on notice to confirm this point, but my understanding of what KordaMentha is reporting on there is interim plans that CALHN had developed before KordaMentha was engaged. The Central Adelaide Local Health Network engaged KordaMentha, as I recall, in August. The diagnostic report was provided to government and then the implementation plan.

It's worth noting that this government is eight months into our term. We inherited a financial and organisational mess in the Central Adelaide Local Health Network and, to be frank, right across the health system. So what did we do? We decided that we could not tolerate a $300 million budget overspend in a hospital. We wanted to make sure that South Australian patients get the health services they need and that the money is not wasted on inefficiencies. I must say I am delighted with the positive response that the organisational financial recovery plan has received. Only—

The Hon. R.I. Lucas: What did the nurses say?

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Sorry?

The Hon. R.I. Lucas: What did the nurses say?

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Oh yes, I'll get to that. Only the Labor Party, who ignored the problem of budget overspends, would criticise us for addressing those budget overspends and inefficiencies. Only the Labor Party, who ignored that problem, would call reining in a budget overrun a cut. Only the Labor Party, who ignored the problem, would call creating surge capacity in our hospitals a cut to beds. In one breath they criticise us for not addressing ramping, and in the next they criticise us when we create surge capacity.

Yesterday, there was only one group saying no to this plan: it was Labor. The unions provided cautious optimism, and I thank them for that. I'm getting repeated positive reports from a forum at the Royal Adelaide Hospital yesterday afternoon, where both in person and online more than 800 staff attended a staff forum. There was, I'm told, a palpable appetite for change.

This morning when I visited the Royal Adelaide Hospital, including visiting the emergency department and a number of wards, a clinician said to me that, following the forum, they had never felt so motivated to get back to work, and it was the best news in the network that he'd heard for 10 years. The only people who are saying no to this plan are the Labor Party. They can keep saying no, but there is an appetite for change. This government will continue to work with clinicians and unions and management to make sure that we deliver better services for South Australians.

Staff want change, unions want change and, most importantly, the people of South Australia want change. We will deliver that change and improve the health care being provided in this state. We know we will continue to get the carping of the arsonist—the person who lit the fire and then wants to get in the way while we try to fix it—but we were elected to do a job and we will do it.