Public Health System

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:30): If I were a betting person, I would be betting that the parlous state of our public health system and how to fix it will be one of the major issues in the lead-up to the state election in March next year. Successive state governments—the past 3½ years of the Liberals and the preceding 16 years of Labor—have brought the public health system to its knees.

A select committee I chair into public health services in SA has heard harrowing evidence after harrowing evidence from a range of witnesses, from parents of sick children to some of the state's most respected and highly talented specialists and dedicated frontline nurses who leave no doubt in my mind that people are dying unnecessarily in our health system. In opposition the Liberals said they had a clear and concise plan to fix our public health system. Sadly, after promising so much and having 16 years of purgatory to develop a blueprint for doing so, they have been appallingly bad, following the lead of the former Labor government.

You need look no further than the behaviour of SA Health senior executives for further evidence of why our health system continues to decay. It starts with the way senior executives treat frontline medicos. In what has been described as an unprecedented show of solidarity, about 400 public health doctors held a stop-work meeting this morning to be updated on their enterprise bargaining negotiations with the state government. These are the very same frontline doctors who have worked around the clock for the past 18 months to protect the community from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of whom are known to regularly work double shifts to ensure enough qualified doctors are on duty.

The meeting was organised by the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA), who informed its members the government had rejected its proposal for a three-year deal with a pay increase of 2.4 per cent a year. The proposal also included initiatives to address excessive workloads, fatigue and bullying and to improve conditions for trainee doctors.

SASMOA did not know how many doctors would turn out this morning. It was aware of a threatening communiqué SA Health's CEO, Chris McGowan, had sent to its troops yesterday warning the doctors and other staff that they were not authorised to attend the scheduled stop-work meeting, threatening those who take part that they would not be paid for that time. SASMOA need not have worried. Dr McGowan's poking of the bear sparked a roll-up of public hospital doctors the likes of which has rarely been seen before. As SASMOA's chief industrial officer, Ms Bernadette Mulholland, said, and I quote:

This morning we had a one hour stop work meeting where we had an overwhelming show of support by our doctors, up to 400 doctors attended the meeting today…which is unprecedented in the time that I've been at SASMOA, but what was really clear is the disappointment and disenchantment that they have with the hierarchy of SA Health and the disrespectful attitude they have towards frontline health clinicians.

It takes a lot to get under the skin of these dedicated, committed and hardworking doctors and nurses working in our public health system. Their preference is and always has been to remain at the frontline treating sick people in the hope of returning them to wellbeing. This is particularly so during COVID-19.

These highly skilled professionals deserve a medal—not to have their union plead for a fair and reasonable EB agreement. The government has a responsibility to explain why it will not agree to SAMOA's EB proposal. It needs to explain why it is only willing to commit to a short, some might say insulting, agreement expiring in December next year, with only a 1.5 per cent pay increase. It has been said the current deal being offered by the state government is an insult to dedicated, frontline public health doctors. It is very, very difficult to disagree with that wrap-up.

Just as critically, there is growing concern that public hospital doctors will abandon the public health system in preference for the better remunerated private sector if the government continues to treat them so poorly, and who could blame them. But what then for our already teetering public hospital system?