COVID-19 Hospital Response

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:12): I seek leave—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: And he will be assisted by his front bench being quiet.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: In today's paper the Premier is quoted as saying, 'We want to ease the borders by Christmas, we want to have as normal Christmas as we possibly can in South Australia.' If the government is so keen to ease the borders by Christmas, my question to the minister is: can the minister clarify when the first of the 93 beds announced this morning will be fully staffed and fully operational?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:12): I thank the honourable member for his question. The 93 beds that relate—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: I would like to hear the minister, and I can't. The leader is out of order. I would like to hear the minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The beds that are referred to will be—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: Just give a date. Then you don't have to stumble over it.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: My advice is that the beds that were announced this morning will be opened progressively between now and January.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, leader!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I need to stress that this is not the first investment by this government—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The leader is out of order. I won't tolerate it. The minister is trying to answer a question from one of your backbench. Minister, please continue.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I want to stress that this $123 million investment has been rolling out for months. I've already said that we've got 30 beds that have already been operationalised at the Repat hospital.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The 93 beds I understand will be activated over the next three months: November, December and January in particular.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Wortley!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The honourable member seems to want to link the opening of the beds with the opening of the borders. I think it's important to appreciate that, whilst we are very keen to use the beds to ease the pressure on hospitals that they are experiencing at the moment, the need for the inpatient beds to be used for COVID purposes will not happen the day after the borders open.

One of the realities of COVID-19 is that, particularly with a well-vaccinated community, the impact of illness and particularly serious illness is reduced and that, if you like, the cases have a trajectory such that people will contract the disease and deteriorate with the condition. There may well be some cases that require hospitalisation early in the course of the disease, but the modelling put forward by the Doherty Institute to the national cabinet envisages gradual increases over time, so that, with the opening of beds that has been happening over recent months, as I said, we are already in the process of operationalising 60 beds, with the 93 that I referred to this morning, plus a series of announcements.

I don't want the Labor Party members to get too excited because there is more to come. This is not the limit of this government's commitment. We want to highlight the diversity of what is a very creative package. As I said, we have been rolling out initiatives for months now. The announcements that are being made this week are a reflection of a lot of hard work and planning by the SA Health team, and I'm sure it will continue to provide reassurance to the people of South Australia that SA Health has got their back.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, the Hon. Mr Hanson.