Emergency Departments

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing in relation to our emergency departments. Will the minister outline whether statistics regarding the performance of emergency departments in South Australia have either improved or worsened over the past 12 months; and, either way, whether they have improved or worsened, in which way?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:50): In terms of one key indicator—and I appreciate that this is not internal to an emergency department—which is ramping, as I have openly acknowledged there has been a worsening of ambulance ramping since this government was in power. What we saw in the last week was a more than $80 million investment in dealing with the problems we have inherited from the Labor Party in terms of emergency departments.

As I outlined to the house last week, the Flinders Medical Centre emergency department was last redeveloped significantly in 2010 and reached its operational capacity a couple of years later. It took the election of the Marshall Liberal government last year to have the next major investment. Across the southern hospitals—what is commonly being called the southern hospitals expansion program—there will be a doubling of the adult emergency department capacity at the Flinders Medical Centre, and that will be a great boon for that community to respond to its needs.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Point of order: relevance. The question was about statistics in emergency departments. He has not mentioned statistics once, as far as I could hear.

The PRESIDENT: The minister has some leeway and he is, as I understand it, going through key data.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: It would be good if you could share that data.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I thought the point was actually to indicate performance rather than to convey numerals. If the honourable members want statistics for statistics' sake, I am more than happy to provide them with reams. If, in fact, the Hon. Irene Pnevmatikos is actually asking a genuine question about emergency departments and how they are performing, as I think she is, I am more than happy to address that.

In terms of the 2019-20 financial year to date, the average ED visit time has increased by 2.1 per cent to 272.9 minutes from 267.3 minutes for the same period in the previous year. So whilst we are having significant problems in the emergency department, that stat in relation to average ED visit times shows, admittedly, a deterioration but in relatively small proportions.