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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-11-13 Daily Xml
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Health and Hospital Care

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (15:40): I am very pleased today to talk about the work that the Marshall Liberal government is doing to fix up the health system and undo the damage of Transforming Health. A number of weeks ago, I was very pleased to hold a forum in my local community, my local electorate, with the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, the Hon. Stephen Wade from the other place, to talk about Modbury Hospital and broader health issues. There was an enormous turnout from the community, which once again demonstrates how important the health system is to the people in the north-east.

Time and time again during the campaign, many people told me that they chose to live in the area because they believed they would be living near a hospital that would provide the services they would need when they were in trouble. Unfortunately, of course, the previous government through its Transforming Health cuts sought to consolidate services into the three main spine hospitals and downgrade services in hospitals like Modbury Hospital—much, of course, to the disgust of the local community.

People at my forum were very keen to hear about the government's commitments to improve our health system and were very pleased to hear about the very significant commitments that the government has made to turn these things around. I was very pleased to see last week that multiday surgeries have recommenced at Modbury Hospital. A multiday surgery had been removed from Modbury Hospital in 2016 by the former Labor government, restricting surgeries to only those patients who required 23 hours or less of post-operative care.

Those, of course, who had required more than that were having to go to other hospitals to have their surgery done, quite often the Lyell McEwin Hospital. The fact that so many people were then unable to have their surgery locally, even if it was relatively minor, caused a great deal of angst within my community.

The Marshall Liberal government is fulfilling yet another one of its commitments by increasing the time that surgical inpatients can stay at Modbury Hospital to 72 hours. This is great news for the north-east, allowing more patients to receive their care closer to home and also help to drive down the waiting time for elective surgery right across the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network.

There is still more work to be done, of course, and the government is working responsibly and methodically to deliver on the entirety of our commitment to restore key services to Modbury Hospital. The re-establishment of multiday surgery is also an important step in reinstating the appropriate context for the re-establishment of a high dependency unit.

In other good news, last week also marked the first meeting of the high dependency unit working group, co-chaired by Professor Andrew Bersten, Director of Critical Care Services in the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, and Ms Alison Hadok, Donation Specialist Coordinator at the RAH and former state branch president of the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses, a highly regarded individual's part of that important process.

This working group has been charged with developing the best model of care and an implementation plan for the new unit; thus, we are well on the way to delivering on an important component of our election commitment that would allow more complex cases to be seen at Modbury Hospital again.

Last week also saw the important announcement, and yet another election commitment fulfilled, with the opening of the five-bed interim mental health assessment unit at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. This unit will provide important temporary support until the brand-new $5.5 million facility is completed, which is expected in 2021.

Unfortunately, the former Labor government abruptly closed the short-stay mental health unit in 2017 and provided no interim solution for patients of the north who required a mental health assessment. That was obviously terrible for those patients but also placed enormous pressure on our emergency departments. The new unit will allow patients to receive timely assessment, and initial treatment and care in an appropriate environment.

In some other very good news, I would like to congratulate all staff throughout the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network on the strong showing in this year's SA Health Awards, with eight finalists across 10 different categories, including the Allied Health Orthopaedic Substitution Clinic Program; the Northern Adelaide Code Blue STEMI Team; Breast Screening in the North; NALHN Pocket DTC; Supporting and Mentoring Staff to Cultural Safety and Professional Security; Integrating Care—Closing the Gap on Diabetes; Aboriginal Traditional Healing Services of Ngangkari across NALHN settings; and the Northgate House. Those staff do a fantastic job in helping to keep our community safe.

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