Hospital Beds

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:49): A further supplementary arising from the original answer, in which the minister talked about bed closures: why did the minister close 61 beds across the health system after receiving the warnings about ramping and after knowing about the cluster of nine deaths?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:50): The Labor Party has played games with bed numbers. The beds that were closed in the December period are the normal closures for seasonable beds, whether it is—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Are they open now?

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The Flinders Medical Centre beds, for example, have been reopened.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, please let the minister answer. Then you can ask a further supplementary. Please don't ask him questions seated. Minister, go on.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Please don't encourage disorderly behaviour; that doesn't relate to the original question or answer. Nonetheless, this government cannot put a candle to the former Labor government when it comes to bed closures: more than 100 in the southern network through the closure of the Repat, more than 40 as a result of the closure of the Older Person's Mental Health Service.

We are committed to fixing the mess of Labor, undoing the damage of Transforming Health, so it was great to be there today at the reactivation of the Repat, when the commonwealth Minister for Health and the commonwealth Minister for Aged Care stood shoulder to shoulder with a group of both state and federal representatives investing in the reactivation of the Repat. Of course, today was not the start. We opened 20 beds at the Repat at the beginning of December, in the period that the honourable member refers to, and we stopped the closure of another 20 beds that were scheduled to close at the end of December. That's 40 beds.

This is a government that actually wanted to sell that land. Under the Transforming Health diatribe they told us that the Repat had been built in 1942 and was basically of no use to South Australians when it came to health care. Well, here we are, and we already have 20 South Australians who are receiving care in the rehabilitation building and another 20 who are receiving care in the ViTA building.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: It's your question.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: It's not five minutes. I'm counting.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: This is a government that, unlike the former government, is committed to opening beds when they are needed. They closed more than 140, we have opened another 40.