Coronavirus

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:42): Further supplementary: after receiving GP approval, how many days does it take to be tested at the SA Pathology drive-through clinic at the Repat?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:42): I would like to take the opportunity to clarify an issue in relation to what the honourable member calls GP approval. I am not exactly sure what the opposition wants us to do. When you get a medical result, it is not good clinical practice to just post it to the client. It is standard clinical practice in Australia to make sure that the person who is receiving the medical test actually has a health professional who can help them interpret and act on it.

That is not an issue when people present to an emergency department because we have clinicians, doctors, nurses and other health professionals there supporting our clients. If people are going up to a drive-through clinic, driving in and driving out, and they are not linked to a health professional, that is a risk to a good pathway of care.

Let me say this again—you will get bored with this—I want to laud SA Pathology for their innovation. They thought about this. How do you provide a drive-through service and still provide a supported pathway for patients? What they said is, 'We need to make sure that these people are linked to GPs.' So you need to have a GP referral—not a GP approval, a GP referral.

In particular, with the innovations introduced by the commonwealth government under the national health plan to respond to COVID-19, that consultation can even be by telephone. You ring up the GP for a Medicare-funded telephone consultation with your GP. They confirm that your testing is appropriate against the relevant criteria. They authorise the test, send the relevant authorisation through to SA Pathology and the test is undertaken. Through that process, the test actually has somewhere to go. The test can be referred back to the GP, who can engage the patient and support them if they are determined to be positive.