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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-11 Daily Xml
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BURRA HOSPITAL

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:07): My question is to the Minister for Health. Can the minister advise when on-call accident and emergency medical treatment will be provided at the Burra Hospital by a Burra-based doctor? It has been over six months since on-call accident and emergency medical treatment has been provided at the Burra Hospital by a Burra-based doctor. In that time, accident and emergency patients have been asked to travel to Clare for treatment, and on-call doctors from Clare have attended at Burra to treat patients.

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) (15:07): I thank the member for the question. It is an important issue that he has raised for the community of Burra. In fact, I met with some representatives of that community just last week. The issue is a simple issue. We, as a health system, enter into contracts with GPs in local communities to provide services, if those GPs are credentialed to provide that particular service. In order for any doctor to work in any one of our hospitals right across country South Australia—or, indeed, in the metropolitan area—they need to be credentialed. A GP does not automatically have the skill set or the credentials to go and work in an emergency department.

The local doctor in Burra was assessed and found not to have the skills that were necessary to work in the emergency department. After the health department went through that credentialing process, the doctor has appealed that process, which is her right and she is entitled to natural justice.

That assessment of her skills will be conducted now by an independent body and, until that has been resolved, there is not a lot that I as health minister can do, other than to make sure that the hospital has coverage from doctors outside of the town. That is why we are very grateful to doctors who are based in Clare for providing service, and, of course, there are senior nurses in the Burra community who are able to provide a triage service as well.

Obviously, it is not an ideal circumstance, but, as I said to the residents the other day, as a health minister I will not compromise the safety of the community by bending the rules just to make people feel better. It does not matter how many people sign a petition, it does not matter how many public comments, how many press releases, how many public meetings that they have; we will not allow a doctor who is not credentialed to work in the hospital. The GP service, I understand, as one of the residents told me the other day, is contemplating taking on another doctor who may well be able to be credentialled. That would be a good thing, I said, if that was the case, but it is really in their hands.

As the member would understand, GPs are private businesses. We do not organise those businesses, they organise themselves. If they choose to not have a doctor available who can provide a service in the hospital who is credentialled then there is not a lot that I can do about it, other than to attempt to recruit another doctor to the town through the Rural Doctor Workforce Agency. Until this particular doctor's appeals process has been settled I cannot really do anything. That is exactly what I told the residents and the public and I tell this house. We would like to see this matter resolved but to a large extent it is outside of the control of the government at this stage.

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