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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

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Health. Is the Burns Unit surgeon, John Greenwood, referred to in the Minister for Health's earlier answer to a question, the same Burns Unit director who was quoted on ABC news on 8 October 2009 as saying of the Burns Unit when it became the first outside the United States to be accredited by the American Burns Association:

It is proof the Adelaide facility is meeting the highest international standards. As a first world burns unit centre we should be providing the gold standard of care and this is the only way that that can actually be proven—by an independent audit from an outside body.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister for corrections! The Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:51): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. The import of her question is that Mr Greenwood is wrong about his own conclusions.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Dr Greenwood, who is the head of the burns unit, held a press conference today. He is the same Dr Greenwood who—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —quite rightly expressed pride—and I acknowledged that at the time of the press release—that the burns unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital received accreditation from an American association, the first in the world to do it. I say, 'Fantastic achievement', but a unit and a building are different things, and what—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition has asked her question.

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, sir. I suspect that the minister has answered the question, too.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for MacKillop will take his seat. The Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The point that Dr Greenwood was making—

Mr PENGILLY: Sir, point of order.

The SPEAKER: It had better be a new one.

Mr PENGILLY: The point of order is that the question was asked by the leader as to whether it was the same Dr Greenwood. The minister has indicated it is; therefore, he has finished the answer.

The SPEAKER: The minister can be the judge of when he has finished his answer, not the member for Finniss. The Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Dr Greenwood was quite rightly proud of the achievements of his unit, as he should be. A unit is a group of people providing a service, and that unit, that group of people, achieved a high level of accreditation. Dr Greenwood said today that, yes, the unit had been upgraded in 2003. It probably had a shelf life as an upgraded unit of about 10 to 15 years, so—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: He did; I read it into the Hansard. He said—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Dr Greenwood said that the unit, which had been upgraded in 2003, would have a shelf life of about 10 to 15 years, which is about 2013 through to 2018, on my calculations, at which time it would need to be replaced. He said that it was built at a time when the full demand for services was not known and it needs to be rebuilt in a new place to take into account the expanded needs that we have. These services need to be replaced all the time. He was particularly offended that his unit was being used by those who are opposed to what the government is trying to do in order to promote an alternative position. He objected strongly to that. He supports the construction of a new hospital. That is the point, and I thank the Leader of the Opposition for allowing me to make it more clearly if I was not able to before.

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