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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-04 Daily Xml
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KEITH AND DISTRICT HOSPITAL

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:36): Thank you—

The Hon. K.O. Foley: This will be inspired.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Dr McFETRIDGE: Empty vessels make the most noise.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for MacKillop, you are warned.

Dr McFETRIDGE: My question is to the Treasurer. If the government cannot find $370,000 per year to keep the Keith Hospital open, how can it find $1 million per day for 30 years for the new Royal Adelaide Hospital?

The Hon. K.O. Foley: What do you think we spend now on the Royal Adelaide, you idiot?

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) (14:37): If this was a Treasury question, presumably the shadow treasurer would have asked the Treasurer. This is a health question pretending to be a Treasury question. If you want ask questions about the Keith Hospital, please be free.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: The reality is, as I indicated to the house previously, that the current costs—let us round them up to $5 billion—if you amplify that over 35 years, that is $175 billion we will be spending on health in today's dollars, without any increase in the demand for services. As a state, we will have to find $175 billion over the next 35 years. The Royal Adelaide Hospital on the new site will cost some of that money. It will cost a very small proportion of that money. The major cost to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital will not be the maintenance or the construction, or all of the other costs associated with it; it will be the services to patients in our state. That is where the real money goes in hospitals—not on the construction, not on maintenance costs and so on, but there is a cost associated with those.

In relation to the Keith Hospital, I am very pleased that the Keith Hospital board has accepted the government's offer to assist them work through a business case so that they can make themselves sustainable into the longer term. We are also assisting them in making sure that they get access to the commonwealth funds that they are entitled to for their aged beds. We have done the same thing with Ardrossan and Moonta, and both those hospitals are doing well as a result of our support. In fact, they will be better off than they were prior to the budget changes. That is the reality of it. I am very confident that Keith will be in the same position.

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