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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-09-23 Daily Xml
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Hospital Beds

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): Can the minister rule out that, to deal with overcrowding at the Royal Adelaide Hospital emergency department, his government has annexed additional space in radiology, the endoscope suite, Ward S4B, the viewing room for the morgue, the TV room and corridors of the wards themselves?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:13): I am not going to rule anything out. I have no doubt that, when you have a massive surge in presentations at our hospital, then the clinicians, the nurses and doctors and the people who run the hospital and have responsibility for the care of the patients, utilise every possible space. I have to say that the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, which the Liberal Party has consistently opposed for the last 10 years, will have a massive increase—

Mr Tarzia: Less beds

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: —in space in the emergency department.

The SPEAKER: Minister, would you be seated. The member for Hartley began interjecting earlier today. He is continuing. Accordingly, he is warned a first time—and the interjection should be 'fewer beds', not 'less beds'.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: The new Royal Adelaide Hospital, which has been consistently opposed from the very beginning, has a massive increase in the size of the emergency department. It has more beds. It has a massively increased emergency department.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: You bunch of—I won't use the word. 'Whited sepulchres' has been used in reference before.

Mr GARDNER: Excuse me—

The SPEAKER: I'm going to deal with this, thank you. It is a conventional wisdom in this place, promoted by a former premier, that 'whited sepulchres' is a permitted parliamentary term: it is not. I call on the minister to withdraw it.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I withdraw, sir. But I must say that the gall of those opposite, who have consistently opposed the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, with its massive increase in beds, with its much bigger emergency department, with its dispersed medical imaging, to now be complaining and whinging about the current Royal Adelaide Hospital is rather intriguing, to be honest.

Mr MARSHALL: Supplementary, sir?

The SPEAKER: No, a point of order for the member for Heysen. I was trying to find a pause there in order to recognise the member.

Ms REDMOND: The minister who was then debating the issue was the point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: That's the point of order? I uphold it.

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