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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-11-19 Daily Xml
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ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Health. Is the minister aware of any public supporters of the government's proposal to build the new Royal Adelaide Hospital?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:34): I thank the member for Ashford for her question. Yes, I am, as it happens, and I would be very happy to share that knowledge with the house.

A number of people have come forward and expressed support. A number of important South Australians are involved in the health workforce. For example, the Nursing Federation has come out as an organisation in support of the new hospital, having canvassed their own membership, those people who work in the hospital, about what they believe; so, they have come out in support. Dr Peter Ford, the former state president of the AMA, described the government's plan for the new hospital as 'visionary'. He says it would provide 'a world-class health service for the state'. Professor Justin Beilby, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Adelaide, has described the plans for the new hospital as being 'on a par with the world's best' and that the association between the hospital and the university 'would continue at the new site, where we [the university] will be heavily involved in each stage of its planning and development'. The list goes on through a range of—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Chapman: Any new ones?

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Any new ones? Just wait. Professor Villis Marshall—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Bragg!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It is an interjection she will regret in a moment, Mr Speaker. Professor Villis Marshall, the Clinical Director of Surgical and Specialist Services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, said, 'The hospital is an important solution for the future.' Professor Dorothy Keefe, Clinical Director of the Cancer Centre, said, 'To renovate the Royal Adelaide Hospital would take about twice as long as building the new hospital and it would be disruptive.'

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for MacKillop.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The member for Bragg interjects, 'Are there any new ones?' Well, as it happens, I do have a new one. At a press conference today, John Greenwood, who is the—

Ms Chapman: He's a member of the public is he, or a plastic surgeon?

The SPEAKER: The member for Bragg is warned a second time.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Dr Greenwood, who is head of the Burns Unit of the hospital—and members would be interested to know that the Burns Unit is the unit that those who are opposed to what we are doing keep pointing to as a brand-new facility which it would be a tragedy to lose—felt so annoyed by the commentary that he organised a press conference today, and I have here some quotes that he made at that press conference. In answer to some questions, he said:

The burns unit, although it is a million-fold better than the previous burns unit we moved out of in 2003, has a finite life, that's just from a patient number perspective. We're also in a situation where burns units globally have a finite life of about 10 to 15 years before they need to be completely revamped, refurbished and rebuilt, so I don't want people looking at the services that we have now and saying, hey this is the reason we need to maintain the hospital.

He continued:

I've spoken to Professor Robert Young as well, who is the director of the intensive care unit, and he's in the same position, the volume of work that these units were built to house has massively expanded in ways that were unforeseeable and so the intensive care unit, like ourselves, they're finding it difficult to cope and they're certainly not going to cope in the future.

Dr Greenwood was asked, 'Can the buildings/site here fill your needs?' He replied:

No, I think the infrastructure in this hospital is insufficient to generate the expansion, I think the land size is insufficient to generate the expansion…and speaking purely for myself I think a new hospital would be the way forward.

It was then put to him that 'There are a lot of doctors that are vocal about wanting to stay here, do you think they're in the minority or are you in the minority?' Dr Greenwood responded:

Well I don't know, I mean I'm terribly young and inexperienced [laughter], so I can only speak for myself and the people that I've spoken to who work within the rebuilt parts of the RAH, who say that the rebuilt parts of the RAH are not going to last.

He says, of those who criticised those doctors who support what we are doing as being young and immature:

I thought they were condescending and I was quite upset about them. I'm sentimental about the RAH, I came here to work at this particular hospital and it has been very good to me. The unit has been superb, but I think you've got to let go sometime of that sentimentality, when you're looking at patient outcomes and patient planning for the future.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: This is the head of the Burns Unit saying that, not me. He also says:

…most of the doctors who I have spoken to who want to move will actually be working in the new unit and the new hospital when it's built.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: If the Leader of the Opposition wants to ask me a question, she should go ahead. Make my day. He says:

...I do just get generally a little bit peeved that people will use my service and the buildings that are my service, and even people within my service and pictures of people within my service as a reason for something that I don't actually believe in.

That is, I interpolate, that the Burns Unit should stay where it is. The head of the Burns Unit—the service that the opponents of the rebuild keep pointing to—says it should be moved to a new hospital for sensible reasons. That is what the experts have to say about what the government is proposing, and that is why the opposition is so terribly wrong.

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