Health Workforce

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:38): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing about health:

1. Will all 1,200 graduate nurses brought on line this year be provided long-term employment in the public health system or not?

2. If our health system is fully staffed and prepared, why are nurses being warned that their Christmas leave could be cancelled at the last minute?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:38): First of all, I took the first part of the question on notice yesterday, but in relation to the second part of this question, I am not aware of any communication to nurses warning them that their leave could be cancelled at short notice. Whatever the normal arrangements are, as far as I know, they are in place.

If any of the local health networks have given their nurses advice reminding them that their leave might be cancelled at short notice, that might be because we are going through a pandemic. That might be because the South Australian community may need to call on their services. And I would like to thank nurses, doctors and the whole range of health professionals for their extraordinary work in the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the announcements the government made on the weekend will significantly ease the pressure on our workforce. On top of the fact that since we were elected in 2018 the Auditor-General's Report shows we have employed 2½ thousand more health professionals than we inherited from the previous government, in the last financial year, and in spite of Labor's misinformation campaign, the Auditor-General's Report shows that we employed an extra thousand health professionals.

That was up to 30 June, and what has happened since then? We have gone out into the market and are trying to recruit another 370 nurses across metropolitan health networks. But it doesn't stop there. On the weekend we announced we want to go for a doubling of our graduate nurse intake. So what might that do for overtime and leave entitlements? Perhaps having those hundreds more nurses will actually make it easier to find the nurses who need to do the work without double shifts, without cancelling leave.

I am not hearing the yapping statements from the backbench of the Labor Party from other parts of the health community. What I am hearing is relief that the government is continuing to deliver what we have delivered over the last four years, and that is a larger health workforce to deliver better health care for South Australians.