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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-02-09 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

EATING DISORDER UNIT

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (15:06): Today we had over 200 people at the front of Parliament House protesting the government's decision to close the 4G eating disorder unit. The minister claims that they are not closing it, but they are. We have seen the letter, three weeks ago, from David Swan, Acting Chief Executive of the Department of Health saying, 'The six weight disorder beds in Ward 4G will move to the Margaret Tobin Centre.' They are, in fact, closing the eating disorders unit in 4G. There is no way the minister can get around that.

In fact, John Hill signed a letter with exactly the same words in it to the member for Bragg on 9 December. The minister signed the letter, the chief executive signed the letter saying that the six weight disorder beds in Ward 4G will move to the Margaret Tobin Centre. Now we are told that it is not being closed. Those beds are being moved; they are being moved out of 4G. Since the early 1970s, the Flinders Medical Centre has been providing a service that has saved many, many lives.

Just to remind the house, as far as mental illness goes, eating disorders have the highest rate of mortality of any mental illness. It is absolutely vital that we maintain the world standard that we started in the 70s and we have currently at Ward 4G. I have spoken to doctors, I have spoken to nurses, I have spoken to parents and I have spoken to the patients. I have included them in what the opposition wants to do, and that is to support the ongoing function of 4G. I have spoken to those people and they are condemning this government for once again announcing and defending.

However, now the government is trying to announce and implement. We saw the minister come out with a ministerial statement the other day saying that they are going to have a review into the eating disorder unit and they are going to come up with a statewide model of care for people with eating disorders which will be developed in South Australia over the next three months. This is the third review into this eating disorder unit. Obviously, the minister has not read the previous reviews.

In October 2007, the Southern Adelaide Health Service Eating Disorder Service Review reported that there were a number of recommendations, and let me just read from the executive summary of this review which states:

The aim of this report has been to look at the current statewide services provided by the South Australian Health Service Weight Disorder Unit (WDU) to assist in future statewide planning for the provision of services for people with eating disorders.

That was in October 2007: we were having a review into statewide services for eating disorder patients. What do we have? On 1 February 2011, heading towards 3½ years later, we have the following statement:

...statewide model of care of people with eating disorders will be developed in South Australia over the next three months.

A statewide review. Minister, go and read your own report from 2007 about the recommendations. Make sure you read dot point 6 on page 31 which states, 'Inpatient program beds should not be colocated with other serious psychiatric beds', not, as we have seen in the minister's letter on 9 December and in David Swan's letter of 20 January, that these beds will be moved to the Margaret Tobin Centre. That is the worst thing you could possibly do.

Why are they considering moving them there? Just a bit of background on that: they are going to move some of the intermediate care mental health patients out of Margaret Tobin and free up some beds. Who is going to be left behind in Margaret Tobin? The most severely ill mental health patients. So, minister you are going to mix the most vulnerable mental health patients with the most severely affected mental health patients. That really makes sense—not.

Why, minister, didn't you do what it said in your own health public performance report that came out yesterday? Go and consult with the community, go and talk to the people out there before you make these announcements. Do not announce and defend and then come back here and tell us you are going to bring in some overseas consultant, another New Zealander. We have got Mr Derek Wright, the head of mental health, a New Zealander, and now we have got Lady Deirdre Mulligan, from New Zealand, coming over to tell us how to run our major health services here.

Yet, in 2007 we had a report that laid out a review of statewide eating disorders services in South Australia, and after that, in December 2009, we had the Body Image and Eating Disorders project final report. In that report, recommendation 3 was to 'establish a specialist service for children and adolescents'. Since 1977 we have had 4G operating at Flinders, a world-class service there for these people. But this minister has rejected all the experience—the wealth of experience—from the psychiatrists, the psychologists and the nurses there. Members of the opposition came with me and we saw what was happening there. Minister, go talk to them, go and listen to them, and don't do what you are planning.

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