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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-01 Daily Xml
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METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL EFFICIENCY AND PERFORMANCE REVIEW

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:48): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Last week, during the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Adelaide, the federal government provided a substantial $1 billion boost to public hospitals across the nation. This is an interim measure as Australia's governments work through the next stages of the national health reform agenda. But the federal government has made clear that it expects its extra funding to be matched by the states with increases in productivity, accountability and efficiency. On this, the two levels of government are in complete agreement, at least as far as South Australia is concerned.

In fact, this is identical to what I said two years ago both to the then federal minister (Tony Abbott) and to his shadow (the now minister, Nicola Roxon). I offered South Australia's commitment to drive further reforms and accept more accountability in return for fair funding from the commonwealth.

The spending on public health services in South Australia this year will be about $3.4 billion, which is over $1 billion more than was spent by the previous government on health in 2001-02. We now have 2,406 extra nurses, 699 extra doctors and 595 extra allied health professionals. The growth in demand for public hospital services continues to increase significantly as our population ages. In fact, at the current growth rates for public health services and for state revenue, by the 2030s the entire state budget will be spent on health.

In the face of this demand pressure, we as a state have to make our public health system sustainable. Extra commonwealth funding is essential and welcome but not sufficient. We need to reform our system as well—and that is what we have been doing. Initially, the Generational Health Review provided the government with strategic directions for reform, including the need to focus on primary health care. Last year we released the $2.2 billion Health Care Plan, which provides the clinical service plan for our hospitals and detailed the planned rollout of GP Plus health care centres. This year the parliament has passed the Health Care Act, which puts in place a strong modern governance structure for the system.

Hospitals are no longer working as independent entities. They are working collaboratively to achieve the best system-wide outcomes for patients.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The deputy leader will come to order.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The role of each metropolitan hospital is now clearly delineated in order to reduce overlap and duplication. The cornerstone of these reforms will be the $1.7 billion new Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Hospital, which will be much more efficient than the existing Royal Adelaide Hospital. We now have more doctors and nurses, extra funding in place and major capital works underway; and soon we will have a stronger governance structure.

The next step of our reform is to review how individual hospital sites work to ensure that they are run efficiently. In order to do this, the government brought in an independent assessor. Paxton Partners is a specialist health care management advisory firm with considerable experience in both public and private health care systems. Paxton Partners conducted a review of four of our biggest hospitals—Royal Adelaide Hospital, Lyell McEwin Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital. The report analyses three years of data in these hospitals, covering activity, workforce and financial data. Paxton Partners compared our performance to similar hospitals in other states and conducted extensive consultations with senior doctors, nurses, management staff and unions. Today, I am publicly releasing the report. The report provides 16—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The deputy leader has been calling for this report for many weeks. The day I release it she attacks me for releasing it. One can never please this member. The report provides 16 system-wide recommendations and individual recommendations for each of the hospitals. These recommendations include improvements in reporting systems, focusing our nursing workforce on clinical care rather than clerical duties, ensuring that hospitals in regions have an efficient management structure (including reducing duplication in administration) and ensuring that hospitals meet their annual budgets.

The recommendations will be worked on, in consultation with hospital, medical and nursing staff, administrators and unions. Some of these recommendations will involve making difficult decisions and some of the independent recommendations will not be popular in some quarters, but building a world-class, sustainable health system takes action at every level—departmental, hospital and individual. I want every single employee of the health system to see this as an opportunity to participate in health care reform.

My strong desire is that we use this report to greatly improve the performance of the whole health system. Many of the recommendations will also apply to other hospitals. For instance, at the Flinders Medical Centre staff have been working hard to improve efficiency. However, with the release of this report, more work will occur to see what more can be done to improve performance.

In releasing this report the government is being open and accountable. It is providing this report publicly so that the Department of Health can work through each recommendation with the entire workforce. In addition to this document being tabled in the house, people will be able to find a copy of the report on the internet at www.health.sa.gov.au. I assure South Australians that the government believes that the safety of patients is paramount. By having a more efficient health system, it will mean more funds are able to be invested in frontline health services. We are building a safe, affordable and complete health care system in South Australia. I table the report entitled, 'SA Metropolitan Hospital Efficiency and Performance Review February 2008'.

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