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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-10-27 Daily Xml
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KEITH AND DISTRICT HOSPITAL

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Health. What did the Regional Impact Statement say regarding the case for the budget cut to the Keith Hospital, and will the government release that statement? One of the largest employers in the district, the Keith Hospital, services a country community spread over an area of 10,000 square kilometres.

Between 2004 and 2009, 46 per cent of the fatal crashes and 30 per cent of the serious injury crashes in the South-East occurred on the Dukes and Riddoch highways. The closure of the Keith Hospital will leave a total of 420 kilometres of the notoriously dangerous Dukes and Riddoch highways with no ready access to accident and emergency departments.

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) (14:52): Well, exactly; that is why we are funding the emergency department at that hospital, and we have said—

Mr Williams: There will be no hospital.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: We have said to the hospital, as the honourable member knows—you brought them to see me and they told me that they were going to close if we did not give them additional money. So, they cannot blame the suggestion of a close on a decision in the budget when they were making that threat prior to the budget coming down.

The honourable member just cannot draw the conclusion that the budget decision will cause that to happen. They have a business model which is not sustainable. You understand that—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The budget will not cause that hospital to close. Any decision about the hospital's future, of course, is one for the board, but we believe that it is important to help the hospital fund emergency services. As I say, about 600 patients a year are either outpatient or emergency department patients of that hospital, slightly—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Order! There is a point of order. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

Mr WILLIAMS: The question was specifically about the Regional Impact Statement, and will the minister table that?

The SPEAKER: Minister, I think that you can answer his question as you choose. It has been asked about—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker, I cannot obviously tell the house anything that was in cabinet documents. The question the honourable member asked me was based on the assumption that the decision made in the budget would cause the hospital to close, and what was in the Regional Impact Statement that reflected on that. Well, of course, I do not believe that the budget will cause that event to occur.

I am saying that we are prepared to support the emergency department because we recognise that there is a need for emergency department services. But only about two patients a day are brought into that emergency hospital, and we are prepared to put in, I think, $370,000 a year to support those two patients a day, which I would have thought is a reasonable—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: If the leader wishes to ask subsequent questions, please, she should feel free to do it, and—

Mr Williams: That was the question.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The question was: will I reveal cabinet documentation to the house, and the answer is no.

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