Keith and District Hospital

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (15:08): Further supplementary: given the cost that the minister has outlined in regard to locums and given that the extended use of locums at the Keith hospital has been a cause of the budget increase for that hospital, will the minister now offer further support to the Keith hospital?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:09): I thank the honourable member for her Dorothy Dixer. She never misses the opportunity; I really appreciate that. The Marshall Liberal government has been very generous to the hospital at Keith; we gave emergency grant funding of $400,000 at the end of last year.

One of the tasks that was agreed with the Keith hospital board at that time was that we needed to work together on a business case on a long-term plan. That project has been managed by Mr Grant King, the incoming chair of the South East Local Health Network. That report is due in mid-May. I was very concerned a couple of months ago to be made aware that, in spite of my clear statements to the Keith hospital that the $400,000 needed to get them to the end of this financial year, that wasn't going to be the case. Mr King has been having discussions with a number of stakeholders because he and I both thought that it was important that the business case be received, and that the long-term future and direction of the hospital be clarified.

The problem is that, given the advice of the hospital that the funding would not last until the end of the financial year, the opportunity to consider the business case in an orderly fashion might have evaporated. Mr King had discussions with the local council, the Tatiara District Council. The Tatiara District Council has given a commitment to invest $70,000 in the Keith hospital. In response, the state government has agreed that we will allow the Keith and District Hospital to bring forward funding from the 2019-20 financial year into this financial year and there is also about $20,000 of commonwealth money being provided by the Rural Doctors Workforce Agency.

So, together, the resources of three levels of government are allowing the Keith District Hospital and community the breathing space to receive the business case and to have discussions both at a regional level and with governments so that we can seek to secure the long-term future of the Keith and District Hospital.