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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-29 Daily Xml
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KEITH AND DISTRICT HOSPITAL

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:08): I happen to have another question for the Minister for Health. Prior to taking the decision to withdraw public funding equivalent to three beds at the Keith and District community hospital, what advice did the minister take—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: —as to the impact on the public health system and on the people who use that hospital if the hospital is forced to close? Of the 1,959 occupied acute bed days in the year 2009-10, 1,551 were funded privately. These services will all fall to the public system with the demise of the Keith and District Hospital.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:09): The question is really going to the viability of that hospital. The representatives of the board of the hospital and the delegation (led by the deputy leader) said to me, 'You need to give us even more money to make our hospital viable or we will face closure.' I said, 'We are not in a position to do that. We are going through a difficult budget process.' I cannot remember my exact words but I think I made it pretty plain that I was not in a position to give them additional money.

Our priority has to be the public hospitals that we run, and I have just gone through some of the highlights of future funding arrangements in relation to country hospitals. We are putting 13 per cent more money into our public hospitals in the country. That has to be the government's priority. We cannot subsidise empty beds in a private hospital. We just cannot do that.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The deputy leader interjects on me. What I say is: we were subsidising three beds and, on average, only one of those beds was occupied and two of the beds, on average, were unoccupied. So we were providing a subsidy to their bottom line as a private hospital. I said to them that Health is prepared to work with them to try to get their cost structures sorted out, but their costs have blown out. They have made decisions as a private hospital that are putting them in a state of jeopardy. That is not my responsibility: that is something a private hospital board did. It is not our job to prop up private entities that are having problems.

I said to them, 'Have a look at your business model. You know your nursing home is working well. The emergency department will work. Look at those two aspects and let's take it from there.' They chose to do something else. That is their choice.

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