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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-02-28 Daily Xml
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ELIZABETH GP PLUS HEALTH CARE CENTRE

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (14:35): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Can the minister inform the house how the Elizabeth GP Plus Health Care Centre is helping to create healthier neighbourhoods in the northern suburbs?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:35): I thank the member for Little Para for this question, and I acknowledge his strong interest in health matters and have visited the GP Plus Health Care Centre with him on a number of occasions. Elizabeth GP Plus is part of our new and growing network of GP Plus facilities, including GP Plus Super Clinics, that we are building around South Australia. It is part of our commitment to building healthy neighbourhoods.

The centres are a key part of a broader GP Plus strategy, which is helping to slow the growth of demand in our acute public hospital sector. In fact, the Department of Health and Ageing has estimated that 9,827 hospital stays were avoided in 2010-11 as a result of this strategy. That is valued at approximately $51.7 million. The avoided activity, as a result of these alternative places for patients to go, meant that we needed 122 fewer hospital beds. So, that is 122 beds that we did not have to invest in, which were available in our hospital system for other patients.

Demand for services at Elizabeth GP Plus is growing every month, which is a good thing, because we want the community to use the services as these services come online and as the public becomes aware of them. I am advised that, since services were phased in from November 2010, there have been 56,000 services provided, and that has included more than 11,000 GP appointments, more than 17,000 dental services and almost 13,000 breast screening services with the new digital mammography equipment.

GP services commenced in April 2011. In just under a year we have had 11,000 GP appointments, so we are running about 1,000 a month, which I think is pretty good, because that is 1,000 people who have been able to get access to a GP who otherwise may have gone to an emergency department. Clearly, people who have non-urgent matters now have a place they can go other than the emergency department, and that is a good thing.

A partnership with the Elizabeth police means people in the holding cells at the Elizabeth Police Station who have minor injuries and illnesses requiring treatment are now going to the GP Plus Centre rather than the Lyell McEwin Hospital emergency department, as they were in the past. So far, I am advised that about 30 people have been diverted through this process.

There has been a reduction, too, of outpatient appointments at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. For the period June 2011 to December 2011, 653 patients were transferred from the hospital to the Elizabeth GP Plus Centre. So, this is an alternative place where medical work can be conducted which does not need a hospital setting.

In dental I am advised that the current waiting time of around six months for Elizabeth GP Plus is less than the state average of 16.4 months and about 10 months less than it was in November 2010. There are about 2,000 fewer people on the waiting list for the outer northern metropolitan area than there were in November 2010 when the clinic opened.

The one-stop services are also helping northern suburbs residents to better manage their health conditions. For example, I have been told of a man with newly diagnosed diabetes who was seen by one of the GPs in the centre and was then referred to a diabetes nurse educator and a podiatrist in the same centre for management of his diabetes. During his appointment he mentioned he would like to quit smoking and, as a result, he was referred to the respiratory nurse at the GP Plus for support with quitting and asthma management. So, that is a really good example of the integration of services that we are able to provide through the GP Plus service. I am advised that 150,000 services have been delivered from the GP Plus Super—

Mr Goldsworthy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Kavel, you're warned! You have had a running commentary. Be quiet!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: That is about the only running that the member for Kavel could do, Madam Speaker.

Mr Goldsworthy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: You are warned for the second time, member for Kavel!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I am advised that 150,000 services have been delivered from the GP Plus Centres and Super Clinics, and this figure will continue to grow as we expand the services.

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