Strathalbyn and District Health Service

The Hon. S.L. GAME (14:53): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Attorney-General representing the Minister for Health and Wellbeing on the Strathalbyn emergency department.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: It has now been 936 days since the emergency department at the Strathalbyn and District Health Service closed temporarily at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Strathalbyn residents and those from small towns surrounding Strathalbyn who used to be able to rely on this service in case of emergencies and accidents have been forced to travel to the already strained Mount Barker hospital for treatment.

At the time of the temporary closure, the Rural Doctors Association's South Australian president said he believed an alternative solution could have been found that would have kept this emergency department as well as other regional emergency departments open. He worried that these closures would not be temporary, as the government then stated, but would sound the death knell for emergency departments at numerous regional towns.

At the time, he claimed that this was a decision made without giving clinicians a voice. Indeed, some hospitals were reportedly only given seven hours' notice that the closures would be happening. My question to the minister is: when will the temporary closure of the emergency department at the Strathalbyn and District Health Service finally come to an end?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:54): I thank the honourable member for her question and her interest in matters affecting regional people, from transport to, in this case, health. As is the longstanding custom and practice when a question is asked of a minister in the other place, I will refer that question and bring back a reply for the honourable member.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Supplementary.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary question, the Hon. Ms Franks.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I will listen to your supplementary question, the Hon. Ms Franks, arising from the answer.