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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-03-13 Daily Xml
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NOARLUNGA GP PLUS HEALTH CARE CENTRE

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How will the new Noarlunga GP Plus Super Clinic improve access to healthcare services for people living in outer southern Adelaide?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:44): I thank the member for Mawson for this question. This is about a new institution in his electorate which will serve all the residents of the southern suburbs. I am pleased to let him and the house know that the new GP Plus Super Clinic at Noarlunga has today opened for business.

For members who have not seen it—and many probably have not gone down—this impressive three-storey facility is a very striking iconic building in the Noarlunga Centre. Situated right next to the Noarlunga Hospital, it comprises 50 consultation rooms, five procedure rooms, five group rooms and two education and training rooms. It is estimated that the clinic will provide about 170,000 individual services each year; that is 48,000 dental services, at least 22,000 GP services and 100,000 other primary healthcare services.

We expect that the clinic's general practitioners will see even more patients once the after hours services are introduced over the next 12 months. We will build up the services as patients become aware that the doctors are there. Importantly, the general practitioner service will provide an alternative to hospital emergency departments for people with less serious conditions and for chronic health problem management.

The vast range of services, under the one roof, includes general practice, allied health, counselling, social support, health information and education, mental health, early childhood and family support, pathology collection, sexual health, and drug and alcohol counselling. These services also have the ability to work in tandem to ensure people get the very best support to help them stay healthy and out of hospital.

In the last week we were sitting I gave some examples of how a patient went to Elizabeth, had one particular issue and was able to be dealt with by a range of other service providers under the one roof. We expect the same thing to happen here. We expect that having services located together in the one family-friendly facility will help to improve access for people living in the outer southern suburbs, just as it has in the Elizabeth GP Plus Health Care Centre for the northern suburbs.

For example, a mother with two young children went to see the GP. While there she was able to see a child, adolescent and family health services nurse, who provides a baby clinic in the centre two days a week. She was then able to have her baby immunised by the immunisation clinic provided at GP Plus on the same day. The mother commented that it was great to be able to get everything done at the same time and then go to the shops for lunch with the kids.

The Noarlunga GP Plus Super Clinic joins GP Plus Health Care Centres now operating in Elizabeth, Marion, Woodville, Aldinga and Ceduna. The new two-campus Modbury GP Plus Super Clinic will open in full later this month, and work will start on a new centre at Port Pirie later this year as well. The centre is a key part of our state's GP Plus strategy to help South Australians stay out of hospital and keep them healthier. We are doing this one, of course, in collaboration with the commonwealth government and we thank them for their support.

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