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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-16 Daily Xml
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Hospital Beds

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:26): My question is again to the Premier. Can the Premier assure the house that anyone else like Mr Dennis Murphy has not been sent home from hospital in excruciating pain as a result of your health cuts closing beds in the South Australian health system?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:27): I have just made the point that not only have we opened a large number of beds on the Repat site—

Mr Malinauskas: You have closed more.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It is so difficult to argue with people who have no fundamental appreciation of the facts. The reality is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —the Leader of the Opposition—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —was the former minister for health in South Australia. He would fully appreciate or he should fully appreciate the concept of flexing the capacity at hospitals. It exists across every health system—

Ms Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that I know of. It would have existed; maybe he didn't take the time to read the briefings. Ultimately, that decision is a decision that is taken by the clinicians. The decisions that we have taken as government—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and the decisions that we have taken as politicians are to provide adequate resources. On that issue, we have had to put more than $1 billion—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —back into the health budget. We have had to reverse the decision to sell off the Repat. We have had to do everything we can to open those psychiatric intensive care beds at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Those opposite opened a hospital without even making sure that those beds were adequate—they were closed. They were closed and we had to do a whole pile of work to be able to reactivate those beds. We have had to open forensic beds in South Australia and work very hard to open more and more beds in the system that we inherited from the previous government. With regard to flexing of the capacity within the individual hospitals, that is a decision that is made by the clinicians.

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