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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-12-05 Daily Xml
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KordaMentha

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:29): My question is to the Premier. Will KordaMentha corporate liquidators have access to any patient files?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:29): I am happy to answer not only this question but also any questions that the shadow minister has regarding the appointment of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network or regarding the appointment of KordaMentha to help with the clean-up. It is now well documented that the Central Adelaide Local Health Network is operating well below what the community expects. We make no apologies for the fact that we have taken action to address the issues we inherited. The public expects to have—

Mr Malinauskas: Good health care.

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —services provided by the Central Adelaide Local Health Network that are of a high standard. This is a reasonable expectation by the people of South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: What we have done is (1) give a new board for the Central Adelaide Local Health Network; (2) provide a new chairperson for that board, Mr Raymond Spencer; (3) provide a new chief executive, Lesley Dwyer, for the Central Adelaide Local Health Network; and (4) provide both her and the board with additional support to ensure that they can manage and improve—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —outcomes for the people of South Australia. This is a local health network that has had a huge amount of taxpayer dollars go into it in recent times: $2.4 billion was provided by the taxpayers of South Australia to establish a new Royal Adelaide Hospital. Whilst we would all expect there to be some teething problems associated with the transfer of a hospital to a new site, we now learn that there are more significant problems.

We don't hide from those problems. We do not sweep those problems under the mat. We will address those in a logical way, and we have already taken action. I emphasise to the people of this chamber that the clinical decisions will continue to be made by clinicians. But when we read reports—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! The member for Kaurna is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —from KordaMentha that outline financial mismanagement over an extended period of time, we will take notice because—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —we are operating on behalf of the taxpayers of South Australia. We shouldn't be spending money when it is very clear, from what KordaMentha had to say—

Mr PICTON: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order, Premier. If you could be seated, please. Member for Kaurna.

Mr PICTON: This was a very specific question—

The SPEAKER: The point of order is?

Mr PICTON: Will they have access to—

The SPEAKER: The point of order is what?

Mr PICTON: It is debate. Will they have access to patients' files?

The SPEAKER: Thank you. Sit down. The point of order is for debate. I think the Premier is attempting to stick to the substance of the question. I will listen carefully to the rest of his answer, though, to make sure he does so.

An honourable member: Will they have access to records?

The SPEAKER: Thank you. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much, sir. As I have been outlining to the house, we have a problem. It is a pity some people can't take responsibility for the roles they have played in that. Regardless—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Regardless of who—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Regardless of who has created the problem, we are now taking responsibility for the clean-up. It is completely unacceptable. This local health network operates well above the national efficient price. It's not like we have issues within the Central Adelaide Local Health Network that are peculiar only to that local health network. The reality is we need to improve output—

Dr Close interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and we need to improve patient outcomes, but we need to do that in a financially responsible way. In the budget in September this year—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: debate. The question was about whether KordaMentha—

The SPEAKER: Thank you. I have the point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —has access to public patients' files.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order. I think the Premier is wrapping up his answer.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Yes, what I was just saying was that, far from running away from the issues, what we've been doing is putting more money—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —into health. In fact, you remember from the September budget that we put more than $800 million of new money back into the budget to address the issues we inherited, and we will fix them.

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