Legislative Council Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1) 54 1 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time Hospital Beds Hospital Beds The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY Legislative Council Hospital Beds The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:40): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Given Chief Medical Officer, Paddy Phillips, has foreshadowed today that there may be elective surgery cancellations this week so hospitals can manage the situation, will the minister instead reopen the 61 beds that you have closed so elective surgery can continue unabated? The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council Minister for Health and Wellbeing Hospital Beds The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:40): By way of footnote at the beginning, I will say I do not endorse Labor's data games on beds. Let's remember that they closed 140 beds with the closure of just two institutions, Oakden and the Repat. Postponing elective surgery is part of regular heat escalation policy. It happens under this government and it happened under the previous government. Now Labor is feigning outrage. They are saying that we should reopen beds rather than cancel elective surgery. What this shows is how confused the opposition is. We all know they left the health system in a mess, so the health system does confuse them. Last week, the Labor Party was criticising me for opening more surgical capacity at Flinders. As I have told the chamber, when we opened the 20 new beds at the Repat we were able to close 16 medical beds at Flinders at convert the ward into a surgical ward so we have more surgical capacity. This is in contrast to Labor, which closed the Repatriation General Hospital, which was the workhorse of surgical activity, particularly in the area of urological and orthopaedic surgery. But what about the hypocrisy of the former health minister in the Labor government— The Hon. I.K. Hunter Legislative Council The Hon. I.K. Hunter: Closing beds when you've got ramping problems. The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council The Hon. S.G. WADE: Sorry, Mr President, I just wonder if anybody wanted to hear my answer. The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter, please! The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council The Hon. S.G. WADE: Obviously, Mr Hunter thinks that the best way to avoid truth telling is to yell people down. Well, I can assure you, I will keep talking— Members interjecting: The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter, please! I cannot hear the minister. The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council The Hon. S.G. WADE: Let's remember that the member for Croydon, the former health minister in the Labor government, the member for Kaurna, a former health minister in a Labor government, were both health— The Hon. K.J. Maher Legislative Council The Hon. K.J. Maher: Former health minister? The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council The Hon. S.G. WADE: Former health minister—both of them were. One was an assistant health minister. The member for Kaurna was an assistant health minister. The Hon. K.J. Maher Legislative Council The Hon. K.J. Maher: There you go! Correct the record. The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council The Hon. S.G. WADE: That's a health minister. Okay, so this member for Kaurna, a health minister in the Labor government, is telling us that we should not consider— Members interjecting: The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: Order! I cannot hear the minister. The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council The Hon. S.G. WADE: —cancelling elective surgery under extreme heat. The hypocrisy of that comment, in the context of a policy that was enacted in 2014—the version I have in front of me is dated 2016; I seem to recall that was during a Labor government. Their extreme health strategy says, on page 10: LHN plans need to consider the following (but not limited to)…Potential and/or actual reduction in service delivery (clinical and/or non-clinical) to ensure that a degree of capability and capacity is maintained both within a site and also across their Network. What hypocrisy! So what should we do today? The Chief Medical Officer says, 'Part of my and my health colleagues' preparedness for the heat that's in front of us is to enact a policy that was there in the Labor government and it's there in a Liberal government,' but the hypocrites on the other side suggest, 'No, no, no, we're going to override the clinicians. We're going to ignore the Chief Medical Officer. We're going to ignore the policies that we ourselves put in place just to play political games.' They are insipid. They are hypocritical. They don't tell the truth. That's probably why the people of South Australia voted them out last March with such a resounding result. Let's remember, the Labor Party was playing with the idea of forming a government with the crossbenchers, but this state said, 'No, no, we've had enough of Labor's games. After 16 years, we want a clear break.' They backed the Marshall Liberal government and they will continue to back the government because they know that we have a hard job ahead. It will take hard, crazy work to fix Labor's mess. We are not shying away from that. As I said earlier, that's why we have systematic reviews on health IT with EPAS, that's why we've done systematic work in terms of developing hospital demand planning going forward. This government will not shy away from our responsibilities, but I must say I am gobsmacked that a party that still suggests that they might one day be ready for government is so hypocritical that they criticise us for being open to the fact that the Chief Medical Officer might take strategies that they themselves put in place in a framework released in 2014. The hypocrisy of the Labor Party is absolutely overwhelming. The Hon. T.J. Stephens Legislative Council The Hon. T.J. Stephens: Breathtaking. The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council The Hon. S.G. WADE: Breathtaking; my honourable colleague says it's breathtaking. We will continue to support our clinicians, Chief Medical Officer and local health board management to do what it takes to make sure that South Australia copes in the week ahead. It will take resolve. We will continue to ask people to look after themselves, to rehydrate, to look out for vulnerable people, to make sure that they avoid exposure to the heat if they can, but we will also make sure that our hospital network is ready. Our hospital network will be ready, and if that means cancelling elective surgery to protect the health of South Australians, that's what we will do. Members interjecting: The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: Order!