Question Time

Royal Adelaide Hospital

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:26): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding public health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Recently, the daughter of an RAH radiotherapy patient raised serious concerns with the minister, the opposition and, I believe, also on ABC radio. To access the hospital for cancer treatment, her mother was forced to use the same lift as patients who were seeking treatment at the RAH COVID clinic. It was explained that this was because other access lifts were closed and restricted to staff only. Any respiratory infection, even the flu or a cold, could possibly pose a risk for immunocompromised cancer patients.

As of today, the RAH website still says the access from the car park to the COVID testing clinic is via the same lifts. My questions to the minister are:

1. Is it the case that it places patients at risk if immunocompromised radiotherapy patients share lifts with people who are seeking testing for issues like COVID-19?

2. What action has the minister taken to address concerns about access for radiotherapy patients since being contacted by the daughter of the patient a week ago?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:27): The Royal Adelaide Hospital runs one of six metropolitan dedicated COVID-19 testing clinics. One of the main reasons we have dedicated facilities is that they are separated from the main facilities. Up until the opening of that facility, most of the testing, as I understand it, was happening in the emergency department.

The COVID clinic at the RAH has a dedicated external entrance and so, as I understand it, most people would approach the clinic from outside. There is obviously the risk of contact with other patients as people are using the car park and come to the clinic through the car park. My understanding is that the practice in relation to the use of the lifts was changed in the context of COVID-19 to try to maintain social distancing. I would certainly encourage people who are coming to be tested at a COVID facility to be mindful of other users of the hospital. In that respect, they might choose to let a lift pass, use another lift and take another ride, or alternately approach the clinic from outside.

The government is certainly very mindful of the risk to general patients coming to the hospital during the COVID pandemic and that is one of the key reasons why we have established a home nursing chemotherapy service, which means that a whole raft of patients who are needing chemotherapy can receive their care at home without needing to access a hospital.

The reality is that all our hospitals need to continue to operate, both in the COVID-dedicated facilities and elsewhere. In fact, only this morning I was at the Lyell McEwin Hospital talking to both nurses from the intensive care unit and nurses from the general wards, talking about how infection control in the COVID environment affects their care, not only in the ICU where they are certainly readying themselves for COVID patients but also in the main wards. Of course, the Lyell McEwin also operates a dedicated COVID-19 testing facility. I also noticed this morning that the entrance to that facility is on the western side of the building, quite separate from the main entrance. That's another example of an SA Health facility managing the risks of infection in the COVID environment.

I would also just make the point, too, that one of the very pleasing aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic is that South Australia has very low transmission. One of those little numbers that has pleased me in recent days has been the positive test rate. South Australia has had a much lower positive test rate than other jurisdictions, states and territories, usually in the order of about 0.4 below that of other states and territories. I was delighted to notice that our positive test rate has fallen to 0.8. That's the first time that South Australia's rate has gone below 1 per cent. That's the first time that any state or territory in Australia, on my understanding, has fallen below 0.8 per cent.

So to reference that back to the honourable member's question, that means that 99 per cent of people who present at a COVID-19 clinic will come back with a negative result; in fact, more than that. There are significant flows. It has not been uncommon in this past week to have testing rates well over 1,000. There are a lot of people coming and going from our hospitals to have COVID-19 tests. It doesn't mean they are COVID-19 positive. I am very confident that our hospitals are continuing to manage both the healthcare needs of people who have COVID-19 or need to be tested for COVID-19 and for the general community.