Medical Facilities

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:15): My second supplementary: can the minister confirm that his original answer was that Wakefield had been secured since March or April as a facility for the state government? If I did hear him right, what has been the cost of that to government? Have any other facilities been secured but not activated, and what has been the cost of those? I appreciate that he might need to take some of that on notice.

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:16): I am happy to have a go at some of it because, to be frank, I am a bit surprised that the honourable member wasn't aware. The Marshall Liberal government, as part of its COVID response, did secure dedicated facilities last year. In particular, the Wakefield Hospital was secured with 130 beds, the ECH College Grove facility was secured with 58 beds and, thank God, because we had a Liberal government we still had the Repat, and we secured the potential for 90 beds on that site. That is a total of 278 beds.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Would you take on notice the cost?

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Again, I do appreciate that the honourable member may need to pay more attention. We have published the costs. I am more than happy to republish them but, in relation to estimates hearings and in terms of answers I have given, we have given a lot of information in relation to the facilities. We have provided a lot of information in relation to the costs.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: It goes back very much to the point the Hon. Irene Pnevmatikos reminded us of earlier in question time: South Australia in the first half of last year was facing the prospect of a major COVID wave. I seem to recall some leading national commentators telling us that by Easter (which I think was in April last year) our ICU beds in Australia would be totally overwhelmed. Thank God that didn't turn out to be the case. Again, if my memory serves me correctly, we were being told in March and April to brace for the long run, that we would probably have our peak of the first wave in August or September. In fact, we had our first peak wave at the end of March.

We have certainly had clusters since then, which the state has had to deal with, but we did not experience the significance of the first wave that we feared. It was because of that, because of the need to be ready for the first wave, that we sought the broad engagement of health professionals, both recently retired and currently serving. It is also for that reason that we secured the dedicated facilities, and I am delighted for the honourable Leader of the Opposition that this news can be fresh all over again as we start a new year.