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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-07 Daily Xml
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ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:55): Again, my question is to the Minister for Health. Why does the government claim that it is impracticable to rebuild the Royal Adelaide Hospital on site when on-site rebuilds have been done at the Royal London Hospital, the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, the Royal Hobart Hospital, and here in Adelaide at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the Flinders Medical Centre and three new levels are being added to the Gilbert Building at the Women's and Children's Hospital?

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Health.

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) (14:55): Madam Speaker—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Norwood! The Minister for Health.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker, it is curious that the opposition, once the contract is signed, is still trying to debate the issues of the last election. They are obsessed by the last election, whether it is the hospital—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: What was that, Isobel?

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There will be no questions like this across the floor.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition just interjected. Now, I am going to have to respond to those interjections, otherwise there is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I will tell you what is out of order, Madam Speaker. What is out of order is the thinking in the opposition about health care in our state. We have plans in place to make sure that we have sufficient services to look after the people of South Australia. The question—

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order.

Mr WILLIAMS: The minister has been asked a question. The minister said that he was going to respond to an interjection and now he wants to debate something, a third issue.

The SPEAKER: Order! Sit down. That's enough. The minister is responding to your interjections. Minister, you will get back to the question.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: If they did not interject, Madam Speaker, one would not be put off track.

The SPEAKER: That's right. If they kept their mouth shut, we could all sit here quietly.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker, thank you for that advice; I hope that the opposition take it. The opposition asked why aren't we building on the new site. Well, I would have thought this would have been pounded to pieces over a number of years. The reasons—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: The Deputy Leader of the Opposition is interjecting. I wish he would stop.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: If I can just summarise the arguments as to why you cannot build on the existing site: much of the infrastructure on the existing site is very old and needs to be replaced. If you want to replace—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Madam Speaker, if you choose to replace it on the existing site, you would have to pull down the buildings on the existing site, which would mean that there would be no Royal Adelaide Hospital to service the public during the time which you constructed those buildings. The solution that the Liberals came up with, putting a multistorey building in the car park in front of the emergency department, might seem like it resolves the issues, but let me assure you that it does not resolve the issues. It would—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: —of course, mean that the emergency department could not be accessed by ambulances for the period of the construction, but that is a minor issue, I guess, if you are in the simple world of the opposition, in the simple-minded world of the opposition.

The infrastructure of the existing Royal Adelaide Hospital is broken. The underground services need to be replaced. They cannot be replaced without considerable dysfunction being caused to that site. If you were to do it, it would take at least 15 years to go through the work, and you would still end up with a second best fit. You would still end up with a hospital which is not big enough to meet the needs of the public of South Australia.

Let me just give some information in terms of the efficiencies associated with the new hospital. The Liberals like to throw around figures, but let me throw around a couple of my own. At the existing RAH the non-clinical services cost approximately, in 2016 dollars (which is the starting point of the new hospital), about $212,000 a day. That is to run all the services that are non-clinical. On the new site the cost of those services will be $198,000, yet we will have 30 per cent more capacity, so there is a huge efficiency—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the Leader of the Opposition! You are warned for the second time.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I know she is angry today. We heard it on the radio this morning and it is continuing through today.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: From what I hear, she has really good reasons to be angry, but we will not get into that. The new hospital will create a very efficient delivery of non-clinical services—198 compared to 212 plus 30 per cent extra capacity. You do not have to be a genius to know that that is a better outcome. In relation to the clinical services, the advice I have received today is that to run the new hospital at—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order, Madam Speaker. He is doing it again.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: To run the clinical services at the new hospital will require about 10 per cent more clinicians to get a 30 per cent improvement in throughput, so it is a far more efficient hospital that we get as a result of building on the new site. Even if we wished to build it on the existing site, it is incredibly impractical; it just could not be done in the time that would be required to do it. That is the simple reason. I know the Liberals have some fantasy about building a high-rise tower out the front, which would mean that helicopters could land on the site; it would mean the emergency department would not work and, of course, it would be a monstrous architectural statement right there on North Terrace. Be that as it may, we are pretty certain that we have made the right decision, and I am absolutely confident that the public of South Australia will support this.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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