Public hospitals

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:37): Will the pensioner face this levy if he isn't able to find a suitable aged-care facility to take him?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:37): There are well-established processes here. In the end, we do expect people to take up offers. We certainly appreciate that people need time. Often they need time as a family to work through the options, but in the end SA Health has well-established processes such that there is a modest recoupment of costs when a discharge hasn't been able to be facilitated.

In that context, I mentioned to the house a number of times that we are working closely with the commonwealth to try to facilitate discharges. To be frank, the biggest problems that we are experiencing are in relation to disability placements, rather than aged-care placements, but it is a matter of balance between a family making timely decisions in terms of the next placement and the provision of hospital-based care.