Question Time

Women's and Children's 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 hospitals.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: In recent weeks, esteemed former oncologist Dr Michael Rice has claimed the Women's and Children's Hospital paediatric oncology patients are being placed—and I will quote—'at risk of adverse events' and that many children are not receiving specialist oncology nursing care. Clinicians have flagged that the number of children missing out on specialist oncology nursing care will be exacerbated upon the opening of the proton therapy unit in SAHMRI II. This new facility is anticipated to bring an additional 100 paediatric patients to South Australia every year. My questions to the minister are:

1. How many childhood cancer patients have been unable to receive care in a specialist nursing hospital ward over the past year?

2. What is the minister doing to ensure that the mooted new Women's and Children's Hospital will have more overnight beds for oncology than the current hospital and, if there is to be an increase in beds, how many will there be?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:27): I thank the honourable member for his question. The Michael Rice ward is a nine-bed specialist cancer ward at the Women's and Children's Hospital and I am advised that it typically sees five to 10 patients as inpatients. So in, shall we say, normal times, a nine-bed ward adequately copes with demand.

I am advised that since April, the ward has been experiencing an increase in workload and that at a peak it had 18 patients. The Michael Rice ward does have a designated secondary ward called the Cassia Ward, and whilst not all of the staff are trained to the same level of speciality as the Michael Rice ward, the staff in the Cassia Ward do include staff that have had specialised training.

The issue of the long-term demand for cancer services, of course, is feeding into the planning for the Women's and Children's Hospital, and announcements will be made at the appropriate time.