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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-02-20 Daily Xml
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Women's and Children's Hospital

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is to the Premier. Is it reasonable for the people of South Australia to expect that, when a letter from 215 doctors to the health department says that the Women's and Children's Hospital is on the brink of collapse, the Premier would find out about it before The Advertiser?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Point of order, Mr Speaker: this question quite clearly offends standing order 97.

Mr Malinauskas: How?

The SPEAKER: By the insertion of facts. Given what has transpired thus far, I have let it go a little bit. I am going to give the Premier an opportunity to respond.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:19): Thank you very much, sir, and I appreciate this opportunity to respond to the outrageous allegations that have been suggested by the Leader of the Opposition.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I have allowed the question; I'm going to allow the answer. Members on my left, be quiet.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: There was lots of comment in the question, but we don't mind because we are very proud of our performance in terms of health since coming to government. I have just been provided with some information—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The members for West Torrens and Elizabeth are called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that looks at the number of people who were working in the Women's and Children's Health Network before we came to government and subsequent to coming to government, and I think it shows a very interesting picture and deals with some of the issues and the allegations being made by those opposite regarding numbers. In 2017, there were 2,614 FTEs within the Women's and Children's Health Network in South Australia. That went up in our first year to 2,705 and it went up again last year to 2,718. There has been an increase in the number of people who have been employed in the Women's and Children's Health Network—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Badcoe is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —since we came to government. We are very happy to be investing. As I outlined before—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna is on two warnings.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —there has been a very substantial increase in the budget for the Women's and Children's Health Network since we came to government, an increase of $65 million, or 14 per cent, since we came to government. We are working very hard with the clinicians and, as I have said, it's not without its issues. We are not saying that we have been able to clean up all of the mess that was created by the previous government and their move to close hospitals in South Australia, to downgrade services in South Australia.

This is what we were left with when we came to government: lots of misinformation that was put out by the previous government in the lead-up in the last election, no coming clean with the people of South Australia regarding the precise financial mess that we were likely to inherit. It was a shameful situation, but the reality is that we have worked extraordinarily hard. We have put more money back into the health budget and put more people back in working at the Women's and Children's Hospital and have worked very diligently to upgrade facilities. We are very proud to be upgrading the facilities—$50 million worth of upgrade, including the neonatal nurseries, the paediatric emergency department and surgical theatres. We are also very proud to have put money into the budget for the upgrade of the adolescent mental health ward.

It would have been very easy to say, 'We are going to move the hospital so what we will do is just let the hospital go to rack and ruin while we make this transition.' We could have referred to what happened at the Royal Adelaide Hospital when there was literally no money put in for an extended period of time while the new Royal Adelaide Hospital was being delivered. But we are putting the patients first here in South Australia. We are making sure that they have the very best health services that we can afford in South Australia. We are very happy with the work that is going into this area and we will continue on that trajectory.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: the Premier informed the house that he was quoting from a document that had new information. Could he please provide that document to the house in full?

The SPEAKER: I don't believe the Premier did say that he was quoting, but I will revisit the footage at 2.22pm and, if he did, I may find differently.

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