Repat Health Precinct

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (14:57): Will the Minister for Health and Wellbeing please update the council on the recent work the government has done at the Repat Health Precinct and how that supports reduction in ramping and increased capacity in tertiary hospitals?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:57): I would like to thank the honourable member for her question and recognise her interest in the government's work to develop the Repat Health Precinct. I am delighted to advise the council that 30 additional beds started operating at the Repat this week. Whether it's reopening, rebuilding, revitalising and renewing, the Repat Health Precinct is emerging as a world-class health precinct. Whether it's codesigning, building and opening—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Leader of the Opposition is out of order.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —the 18-bed neurobehavioural unit, or NBU as it's called, for people living with advanced dementia, or ensuring elderly patients have access to the new Complex and RestorativE (CARE) service at the Repat, this government is taking action.

The state and federal governments in partnership have invested $125 million at the health precinct, which also provides a brand-new brain and spinal unit at the Repat and a return of surgical services to the campus through a partnership with Nexus, with $5 million of capital works to prepare the site for a surgical facility.

On Sunday, along with my colleagues the Hon. Michelle Lensink and the Premier from the other place, I was very pleased to mark a $3 million investment by this government, which culminates in the opening of 30 beds across wards 5 and 6. These beds will enable National Disability Insurance Scheme participants who no longer require acute hospital care to transition out of hospital on their way home or back into the community.

Sometimes NDIS participants find themselves delayed in their discharge after the medical need to be an inpatient has ended. They are ready for discharge. However, perhaps due to delays in increased funding being approved in the participant's NDIS plan, or delays in home modifications, or issues coordinating new support workers, or changed support needs, people can often find their discharge is delayed, sometimes for days, weeks, months, or longer.

As at 17 September 2021, there were 64 general health patients languishing in our hospitals awaiting NDIS processes so that they can move back into their homes and the community. These 64 discharge-ready participants represent combined discharge delays of 4,989 bed days, and 16 of the 64 had a discharge delay of more than 100 days.

People remaining in hospital after they have been declared fit for discharge is not good for anybody, and it is not good for the health system. For the patient, they are at higher risk of hospital-grade infection, they cannot easily resume or relearn the activities of daily living and they are disconnected from friends, families and community networks. For health system staff, it is frustrating to see their patients unable to transition into more appropriate accommodation and activities of daily living back in the community when these patients are well enough to leave the hospital.

For the health system, beds remain used by people who no longer need them, preventing access to those who do. Acute hospital beds are equipped and staffed to provide acute care, and we must ensure that people can move to transitional care arrangements as soon as they are able to do so.

I would like to thank SA Health, Wellbeing SA, the local health networks, the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist and the Department of Human Services for the collaborative work on Transition to Home since March 2020 and for this recent intensive work providing a new transition option for NDIS participants leaving hospital.