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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-03-08 Daily Xml
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Hospital Beds

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:47): Supplementary, sir: will the minister commit to coming back to the parliament this week to give us a clear picture of the number of general medical beds and surgical beds that exist currently at both Modbury and the Lyell McEwin Hospital, what it is going to be after Transforming Health and what the time frame for that transition is going to be?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:47): The problem with talking about bed numbers is not just, as I have already said—but, of course, our bed numbers—

Mr Marshall: You just said there is going to be an increase. The doctors are saying it is going to be reduced.

The SPEAKER: The leader is on two warnings.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: —are always fluid; the number of beds that we have in the system changes day to day. We have as many beds as we need for the number of presentations that we have and the number of patients we can move through those beds and be seen. The Leader of the Opposition might not like it, but these are the facts and if, God forbid, the people of South Australia ever have to have a Liberal Party government, they will find this truth in government as well.

So, it is simply not the case: bed numbers are not a static thing frozen in time. We open and we close beds as we need them. We don't have a huge number of beds just sitting there idle. If we don't have the presentations, then we close the beds; if we have a large number of beds, we open them. But, as I said, as we move activity from central Adelaide to northern Adelaide then the resources, including the beds, will follow that activity and, yes, overall, there will be more beds across those two hospitals than there are currently, because we are moving activity from central Adelaide to northern Adelaide.

Mr Marshall: When?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: The Leader of the Opposition interjects 'When?' Well, when we're ready.

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright.

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