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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-11-01 Daily Xml
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ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (15:08): Sorry, I did not know that I was getting another question right now; that's good.

The SPEAKER: You're lucky; you got it by two seconds.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs REDMOND: My question is also to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Can the minister confirm that the Royal Adelaide Hospital has advised that they may need to commence ambulance ramping and associated industrial action due to emergency department overcrowding?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (15:09): I understand the nature of this question; it follows on from a message—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: It follows on from a message that was circulated by the ambulance union about a busy period at, as I understand it, the Flinders Medical Centre last Tuesday.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley, do you want to leave the chamber? Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: This was a serious question; I am trying to answer it and not in any particular way to play politics with it. The ambulance union put out a circular to its members I think this morning where it raised some issues about Flinders Medical Centre from last Tuesday. I have sought advice from my department about that. It is speculated that other places may have issues in the future. I have not been given advice that the member asked me about concerning the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

It is not the policy of the department or the government to cause patients to be kept in ambulances while issues are worked on in the emergency department, but from time to time people spend longer in the ambulances than the recommended time frame. Generally, the vast majority of patients are transferred from the ambulance into the emergency department within the recommended time frames. There are always some outlies, and of course we do everything we can to ensure that they are as few in number as possible.

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