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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-28 Daily Xml
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COVID-Ready Road Map

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:26): My question is to the Premier. How can South Australians have confidence that our health system is equipped to be able to handle COVID when currently we have record ramping and 12 beds at the ICU that currently aren't even operational and instead are allocated to storage facilities and being used to accommodate film crews?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There is a point of order.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Not only the words but the tone are extremely argumentative.

The SPEAKER: I find that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members! There is a deal more energy in the room than there has been on previous occasions and we are going for the hat-trick of not throwing members out three days in a row, if members do observe the standing orders sufficiently for that to occur.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I ordinarily wouldn't respond to interjections, but the Minister for Education does make an excellent point.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: That's my point.

The SPEAKER: Yes.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The question is whether the question contains argument. The question before the Chair is whether the question contains argument. It's a reasonably persuasive point. I am going to give the leader an opportunity to put the question again, mindful of the standing orders.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would be more than happy to ask my question again of the Premier, the question being to the Premier: how can South Australians have confidence that our health system is equipped to be able to handle COVID when currently we have high levels of ambulance ramping, emergency departments under pressure and at least 12 beds in the ICU not operational.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order, sir.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

The SPEAKER: Leave has been sought, Leader of Government Business. Let me hear out the question including the section that relates to the leave and then I will come to you.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: In a Facebook post made yesterday by one of Royal Adelaide Hospital's leading surgeons, Dr Craig Jurisevic, he stated and I quote:

We have had to cancel another two urgent lung cancer patients today due to lack of operating theatres and ICU beds.

He then went on to say:

Could you please explain these photos taken from the unstaffed and idle 12-bed ICU ward and six operating theatres?

One of those photos showed what he said was an ICU room used as a studio for a 'freelance film crew'.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: The point of order, sir, is that you asked the leader to rephrase the question and he did not rephrase the question.

The SPEAKER: I am going to allow the question, but I will remind all members that there is a form of asking questions that deals appropriately with opinion and argument. There has been for quite some time, probably since Speaker Atkinson's time, a tendency to creep over the line in relation to the relevant standing order. We are not going to take a black-letter approach because, apart from anything else, we have well departed from that in Speaker Atkinson's time, but I do remind members that argument and opinion do tend to cloud questions. I will allow the question.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:29): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his poorly worded question but, nevertheless, it did traverse a number of important issues, the first of which was how the public can have confidence in SA Health. Well, let me tell you SA Health is made up of very hardworking, capable men and women here in South Australia who have protected South Australia during a global pandemic. I think our health system in South Australia has stood up extraordinarily—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Why are they posting photos on Facebook?

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I think our SA Health has stood up extraordinarily well during a global pandemic, whether it be the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call. I am listening carefully to the Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —innovation shown by Dr Tom Dodd and his team at SA Pathology with drive-through PCR testing or whether it be the announcement today at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for the establishment of a COVID care centre, which would treat people without hospitalisation and keep them in their homes a lot longer.

What I have seen from the very hardworking men and women of the Royal Adelaide Hospital is dedication, often in extraordinarily trying situations, where we are trying to deal with a global pandemic that there is no rule book for. What we have seen in South Australia is our state outperform most of the rest of the world. This has been a partnership with the people of South Australia as well as SA Health, so I do need to acknowledge the great work of the people of our state. There is no doubt about that.

The second part of the leader's question, which was condoned after he sought the leave of the parliament to introduce some facts, related to 12 ICU rooms that were not being utilised as ICU facilities at the moment. There are 60 ICU beds at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. It was never designed for there to be a full 60 patients in there at a single point in time. The reason why is that the Royal Adelaide Hospital is our major trauma hospital. There needs to be a capacity for surge if there is a significant—

Mr Picton: They can't surge when they've got storage in them.

The SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna! The Premier has the call.

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna, you are called to order.

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: You are warned for the first time.

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned for the first time.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned for the first time. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: As I was saying, we need to have a surge capacity in a major trauma hospital, and that's one of the reasons why we do not have those ICU beds occupied all the time. I did ask Lesley Dwyer the question about the film crew's storage in one of the rooms there. She is the Chief Executive of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, and she provided a perfectly plausible explanation.

We know that the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, our largest local health network, does produce videos and material content on an ongoing basis. She did tell me the specific content that was being filmed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital at the moment. I don't have that information at hand, but I am more than happy to provide it for the house. I will be able to access that and provide that information to the house, but I am 100 per cent satisfied—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Is it in secret modelling?

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that the purpose for that filming is to provide very important health information to stakeholders, whether they be for internal training purposes or they be provided to people who may be living with an illness or a disease out in the community, so I am happy to provide that information. I think the people of South Australia do have confidence in the health system in South Australia and in this government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and I expect that to continue into the future.

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