Legislative Council Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2) 54 2 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time Kindred Living Aged Care Kindred Living Aged Care The Hon. F. PANGALLO Legislative Council Kindred Living Aged Care The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:58): Does the minister have concerns that the loss of aged-care beds in the Whyalla region will now place a strain on the Whyalla Hospital to accommodate elderly people seeking respite care or seeking beds? The Hon. S.G. WADE Legislative Council Minister for Health and Wellbeing Kindred Living Aged Care The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:58): The quality of residential aged-care facilities in any particular community is a significant issue for local health services. We rely on residential aged-care facility operators to maintain high-quality health and other care so that people can continue to maintain good quality of life and maintain good health, and also that they maintain a workforce which has the skills to be able to deal with health issues that are appropriately dealt with in the RACF environment. I certainly have concerns that sometimes residential aged-care facilities transfer people to hospitals when they would be more appropriately cared for in the residential aged-care facility. I have already indicated that I am concerned about the fact that, with the closure of Annie Lockwood, there will be a shortfall of supply in terms of demand, but that is likely to lead to, at least in the short term, people receiving care outside of Whyalla, so therefore the impact, if we can successfully place residents in quality residential aged-care facilities, we would hope that they would not need to therefore receive a higher level of care from hospitals.