Rural Health Service Funding

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:48): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question on the topic of funding for rural health services to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Last year, we saw funding extended to boost the SA Ambulance Service community paramedic program in Robe and Ceduna until this year. The purpose of this funding was ostensibly to assist with an increased capacity to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, the pandemic is still here with us and a year later we are seeing a mental health tsunami across the nation and, as the minister has mentioned many times, increased emergency department presentations.

SAAS has also previously noted that the placement of additional community paramedics would provide general and emergency health care as well as play an important role in community education around public health issues and not just COVID-19. The program itself has, of course, prevented hundreds of emergency ambulance calls and hospital attendances by delivering preventative health screening and pre-hospital health care and education in the community. My question to the minister is:

1. Will there still be funding after this year to support community paramedics in those two locations of Robe and Ceduna, given the clear success, benefits and importance of this program?

2. Are there any plans to expand the program?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:50): I thank the honourable member for her question. My understanding is that funding has been confirmed until the end of June 2022, so 15 months, but I will certainly come back and correct the record if that isn't accurate.

In relation to the two that the honourable member mentions, the community paramedics at Robe and Ceduna, the honourable member quite rightly highlights the versatility of paramedics in terms of not just critical care but supporting the whole continuum of care. The Robe community paramedics work with Dr David Senior, the GP there. Robe certainly doesn't have a hospital.

My understanding is it might be the largest town in South Australia without a hospital, so the community paramedic model is particularly relevant. The honourable member talks about the diversity of the community paramedic role. My understanding is that the community paramedics there not only work with the local GP and support broader health care but also support the local volunteer ambulance crews.

In relation to the Ceduna practice, it was my privilege when I was in Ceduna recently to meet with members of the community paramedic team, who highlighted the exact point the honourable member makes in terms of the relevance of community paramedics for primary care. Those particular community paramedics have a role in supporting primary care for particularly Aboriginal South Australians in that local community, and I think highlight the opportunity of community paramedics to, if you like, be navigators amongst the different services. You have Yadu Health Aboriginal Corporation, which is co-located with the Ceduna hospital, and you have the town camp and other services in Ceduna, so I think the community paramedics play a valuable role there.

While I was there, it was a privilege to have a conversation with a community paramedic and some senior SAAS people about ways the model could evolve. In that regard, I will take the opportunity to respond to the member's final question, I seem to recall, which was: are there any plans to expand the use of community paramedics? Yes, there are and, yes, we are.

We have a pilot operating in the south coast using community paramedics for in-reach to nursing homes. I think it is just nursing homes; I don't think it involves visitations to homes. I think it is a good example of what many people were hoping might come out of the royal commission into aged care. I know there will be a lot of people looking very closely at the federal budget tonight to see whether there is any support for what I would call in-reach health services, whether that's into a person's home or into their home if it's a nursing home or a retirement village.

We see this in-reach model being used in both state and federal-funded services. In fact, on the Repat site we have both a Dementia Support Australia service, which is funded by the federal government, delivered in South Australia from that site by HammondCare, which provides in-reach, as I understand it, both into nursing homes and people's homes, and also we have the SA Health service located in the same facility.

I am strongly of the view that we need to be agile in using the skills of our health professionals. It was my privilege earlier today to attend a morning tea to celebrate International Nurses Day tomorrow and to remember International Midwives Day last Wednesday. I had cause to reflect on how much this year has demonstrated the versatility of the nursing profession. Who would have thought a year ago that we would have nurses being key members of teams that would be delivering medi-hotels, testing, mass vaccination clinics, border controls and so many other things? I for one pay tribute to our health professionals and to their versatility and agility.