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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-06-05 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

COUNTRY HOSPITALS

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:05): I rise today to speak about country health in South Australia. I remind the house that back in May 2008, all of regional South Australia, and in fact much of metro South Australia, was up in arms about the government's country health plan, and it had to make a significant backdown in the face of that public opinion. In February 2011, discussion was first started with the proposal of an inquiry by the Social Development Committee into country health.

That was progressed in the Legislative Council by the Hon. Michelle Lensink, in her role as opposition health spokesman in that house. On 23 February, she moved a motion that the parliament's Social Development Committee inquire into country health. Through that process the former minister for health said very publicly that he would be happy to participate in that. He said he had no fear of that; in fact, he said he supported and welcomed the inquiry.

He did not ever back down from that, but unfortunately it seems that the government has. In fact, former minister Hill even sat down with me and we discussed the terms of reference. We came to an agreement. He said he was very comfortable with them. He said the government was very comfortable with them; certainly the opposition was. Those terms of reference were put and agreed on 6 April in the Legislative Council and they included:

examine the review by the Health Performance Council on the operation of health advisory councils;

inquire into and report on current provision and plans for the future delivery of health services in regional South Australia, with particular reference to health advisory councils and the benefits or otherwise of the removal of hospital boards;

trends in local community fundraising for medical equipment services;

how funds currently and previously raised by local communities are held and spent, with particular regard to authorisation and decision-making;

timing of finalised operational budgets in country hospitals;

ownership and transfer of property titles of country hospitals;

South Australian ambulance service arrangements, including the role of volunteers, fees and fundraising, and the benefits or otherwise to local community events;

procurement by Country Health SA and the benefits or otherwise to country communities;

the benefits or otherwise of all rural and remote South Australia being classified as one local health network within the federal health system;

And there were others. These were the things that the minister at the time and I agreed were important to look at, and the government and the opposition both agreed were important to look at, and yet the government has squibbed on this deal. Here we are today, in June 2013, and the government has still refused to let this inquiry progress. The Social Development Committee was essentially instructed by the parliament to undertake this inquiry.

I have stayed in touch over recent years with the various chairs of the Social Development Committee. The most recent response I had was on 18 February, from the current chair, the Hon. Russell Wortley. In his letter, essentially what he says is, 'The terms of reference relating to regional health services remain on the committee's forward work plan.'

The public is becoming very impatient about when this inquiry will actually take place, if this inquiry will actually take place. The public is very concerned about a whole range of broken commitments by this government, but the public, particularly in rural South Australia, wants this to go ahead within the term of this parliament, as the government promised that it would.

Rural health service providers are doing the very best that they possibly can throughout rural and regional South Australia, but complaints keep coming in. Let me advise the house that the complaints come, as well as from the public at large, from doctors, nurses, health advisory committee members, allied health professionals—from a whole range of people who are working in the system as well as those who depend upon the system. They want the system changed and improved. The government said that it would undertake this inquiry. The current health minister, for whatever reason, has not allowed it to progress. The government has not allowed it to progress. I call on the government to progress with this inquiry. They said they would do it and it must be done.

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