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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-25 Daily Xml
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COUNTRY HOSPITALS, BIRTHING

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:46): My question is to the Minister for Health. On what basis are women giving birth in country hospitals to be discharged—

The Hon. J.D. Lomax-Smith: Pregnancy!

Members interjecting:

Ms CHAPMAN: You might think it is funny. You might think women in country hospitals is funny, but they do not think it is funny out there.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The house will come to order.

Ms CHAPMAN: —to be discharged four hours after delivering their babies? Recently I received a letter from a country resident who is preparing for the birth of her second child. She received correspondence from the South Coast District Hospital, which is situated at Victor Harbor, which stated:

After your baby's birth it is expected you will be discharged as soon as you are ready, usually within four to 24 hours.

Last month she wrote to the minister and the hospital explaining what she considers to be inappropriate for regional South Australians. She pointed out that, for the rest of South Australia, it says on the health department's website:

How long you will stay in hospital? The length of stay in hospital after having a baby varies. For most mothers this is about three days following a vaginal delivery and five to seven days following caesarean sections, etc.

Four hours in the country.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:48): There are so many issues here that one would want to explore. The first is that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is referring to a country hospital. This government is trying to bring country hospitals within a system so we can actually have some standards which apply broadly across country health. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition and her party have resisted that every single inch of the way.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: That is the first point. The second point is that we have established within the health department, and particularly relating to country health, a clinical network which is looking at obstetrics and birthing generally to try to come up with a set of standards and processes to be put in place so that people across South Australia, whether they are in the city or the country, can have very high standards of health care.

The third point is that, on her own reading of the report, the hospital wrote to the woman and stated, not within four hours, but within four to 24 hours most women will leave the hospital. That might be a fact. I am not aware of what the facts are, but if the hospital states to women that within four to 24 hours most women leave the hospital, that is a matter of fact.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my right will come to order.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: On the deputy leader's own reading of that report—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Transport!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —it makes it clear that that is a matter for the clinician and the patient. Clearly, the clinician will make a decision about what is in the best interests of the patient. The patient and the clinician will do it together.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: You are totally misleading and you are being totally dishonest and untruthful in your reading of that statement, and you know it.

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