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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-19 Daily Xml
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Hospital Beds

Mr SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): My question is again to the Premier. How many of the 173 hospital beds that the Premier claims have been opened since the election were beds funded by the Marshall Liberal government before caretaker and yet to be opened at the time of the election?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:17): Well, well, well. Here we have the Leader of the Opposition saying, 'You've taken action to open 173 beds, but we were thinking about doing it. We were thinking about doing it. If only we had a chance we could have done it.' What an absolute disgrace! A few weeks after the election we got this bombshell report—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Thank you for protecting me, sir, because everyone will want to hear this. A few weeks after the election we had—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call. Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —this bombshell report, the Monaghan report into what was done at Flinders Medical Centre, what was done supposedly to fix ramping, because ramping was going to end completely according to the former Premier, the member for Dunstan—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —almost immediately.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert, Member for West Torrens, order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Premier!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: And it was all on the basis of this SHEP plan—which rhymes with something else—at Flinders Medical Centre. A noted national expert—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert, member for Morialta!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —in terms of emergency departments and flow, Dr Mark Monaghan, was appointed to review what happened at Flinders Medical Centre. And what did he find? That this program—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —that the former government put in place opened beds in the emergency department but it closed beds in the hospital. It closed beds in the hospital, so actually this report says that the situation has been made worse by the plan that they put in place. So upon forming government we have a plan to build new wards, to build new facilities—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —in particular in mental health, which I am happy to expand on later—

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hammond!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —but new wards across the system. But we, very urgently, the Premier and I—

Mr Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley well knows the standing orders.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —sat down with SA Health, with Professor Spurrier, with Grant Stevens, to look at the COVID situation and saw very clearly modelling which you hadn't released prior to the election that showed very clearly the previous government knew about an impending increase of COVID cases that they hadn't told anybody about, plus we had the crisis underway, existing in the hospitals at the moment.

The Premier and I gave very clear instructions to SA Health that we need to find every possible bed that we could to open. This is in addition to what the previous government was doing; these are additional beds that we have been able to open. This is not the permanent fix that we outlined at the election. This is what we can do with the current infrastructure and the current staffing that we have at the moment.

If there were more beds that you had built we would be opening them, but we have been left with a situation where we are opening—

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morialta!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —as many beds as possible as we can find and we can staff. That's 173 extra beds that we have been able to open in a short time, and we have plans now—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —to open over 300 more. If there is a change of federal government, and there is actually a partner in Canberra who is willing to invest in South Australian hospitals come Saturday, we will be able to expand on that even more with 160 extra beds at the Flinders Medical Centre and the Repat. Ramping is caused by the people who are stuck—

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Hammond!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —in the emergency department every single day, waiting for a bed elsewhere in the hospital. That means the ambulance can't bring in the next patient and that means, as the Premier has outlined, that people who are waiting for an ambulance to rock up on time are waiting too long.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: This is why we need those extra beds, and that's why we have opened every possible bed we can find, and that's why we will continue to build more beds, more wards with more staff to fix the crisis that we have inherited.

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