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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-02-27 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Ambulance Ramping

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:04): My question is to the Premier. What action did the Premier take when the Ambulance Employees Association warned on 6 November last year that ramping was the worst that it had ever seen?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:04): I think this has been well documented. We took the issues—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —with regard to ramping at our major hospitals very seriously. As you are aware, sir, we inherited a situation where there had been chronic ramping at our hospitals, which was exacerbated by the failed Transforming Health where beds right across the system were closed. Of course, we have taken action to address those issues.

Some people say, 'What were those issues?' What are those things we have actually done? Well, we have made it very clear that we have kept open the 20 beds that were slated to be closed at the Repat hospital. Those opposite had already made a plan—in fact, they had actually signed a contract—to sell the Repat site, so those beds were clearly not going to remain open beyond the end of last year. They are still there now, so that's 20 extra beds that have gone into the system. Since then, we have opened up another 20 beds, so in fact we have a 40-bed differential on the Repat site over and above what would have been there if Labor had retained government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —in March last year, but they didn't. They were thrown out of office. They were thrown out of office because they had mismanaged the health system in South Australia. By contrast, what we're doing is everything we possibly can to increase the capacity of our hospital system in this state. There are 40 additional beds at the Repat hospital.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: There are 40 extra beds at the Repat hospital over and above what would have been there if Labor had been returned to power. There are an extra 10 beds, psychiatric intensive care unit beds, at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. Those opposite, of course, were responsible for opening the new hospital. They failed to open it at full capacity. They had major problems with the implementation of the contract. By contrast, we have worked diligently—

Mr Malinauskas: It took another 12 months for you to open up the hospital.

The SPEAKER: Order, leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —since we were elected to make sure that those PICU beds were available. That has increased the capacity at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital by 10 beds. We have a plan now to make 10 new forensic mental health beds available at Glenside, which will again take people out of beds at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and ease the pressure on the emergency departments in our state.

On the weekend, we announced new criteria-led discharge protocols. These are protocols that we put in place after extensive consultation with health practitioners in South Australia. Unlike those opposite, who exacerbated the situation in terms of emergency departments in South Australia, what we have done is everything we can to alleviate it. So we have those that would exacerbate the situation and those that would alleviate the situation.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Yes, we have the question.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: You may be interested to know, sir, what the situation was before we were elected to government. Very helpfully, the Australian Institute—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Will the Premier please resume his seat for one moment.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Comparing and contrasting the past administration to the current one is debate.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order for debate. I have the point of order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right! Premier, please be seated for one moment. I have allowed members, in order to compare and contrast in a limited manner, some preamble. That might include referring to what was done by a former government. Obviously, there is a line. If that line is crossed, then I will intervene, member for West Torrens. Before I call the Premier back to his feet, I call to order the member for Lee, the member for Playford and the member for Hurtle Vale. The Minister for Education is also called to order. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Some people would have it that there has been a deterioration. I think it is important to take a benchmark of what the performance was under the previous government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Each year, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare publishes statistics. For the last financial year, and those opposite were in government for nine of those 12 months, we had the worst emergency department clearing times in the nation. We had the lowest proportion of emergency department patients who were seen within the clinical time frame for—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order, Premier.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The question was about ramping, sir, not emergency department clearance rates.

The SPEAKER: For debate, I do not uphold the point of order. Is the Premier finished?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: No, I keep getting interrupted. I would like more time if possible, another five minutes.

The SPEAKER: I will give you a few seconds, then let's wrap it up.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Maybe another five minutes to canvass some of the salient points because I keep getting interrupted, sir.

The SPEAKER: A few more seconds, then let's wrap it up. Thank you, Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I find it difficult to understand why the member for West Torrens doesn't understand that relationship between emergency department clearing times and ramping out the front of a hospital. It seems to be a pretty obvious relationship to me, and so when we look at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare statistics, what they showed under those opposite was that we had the worst performing emergency department in the country, the second to worst, the third to worst and the fourth to worst. That is what we inherited from those opposite, and that is what we are setting about to fix up.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, Premier. The Leader of the Opposition.

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