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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-06-02 Daily Xml
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Elective Surgery

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:25): My question is for the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister advise the house whether cancelling elective surgery is part of the government's winter demand plan?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:25): I will tell you what is not part of our plan: the wholesale cancellation of all public and private elective surgery except for the most urgent, which is what happened—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —in January and February this year. Elective surgery numbers in South Australia grew to over 4,500, which was the highest that we have ever seen in this state. It was previously criticised years beforehand as outrageously high at some 1,700 or 1,800. Since coming to government, we have now reduced the overdue elective surgery waiting list to about 3,300 (off the top of my head, but I can check the exact figures) from the 4,500 that it was when we came to government. That is a significant reduction that has happened.

Initially upon coming to government, the Premier and I were briefed by the then Chief Executive of SA Health, the Chief Public Health Officer and the police commissioner in terms of the situation of COVID. What we were told was that it was a very serious situation in the hospitals, where elective surgery had had to be cancelled just before the election and there had not been any notification to people about that.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: In contrast, I have been very clear to this house, as I was in a ministerial statement in the last sitting week, that because of the pressure on the system there are hospitals at the moment that are having to cancel elective surgery. This is incredibly regrettable and we absolutely do this as a last resort, but there is a significant demand on the system at the moment that means that has had to occur at some of the major hospitals, particularly the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Flinders Medical Centre.

That is an issue because we do not have enough beds in the system. We simply do not have enough capacity in the system at the moment. We have opened up every possible bed we can across the system, and we need to build more beds to make sure that we can provide the capacity in the system to make sure that people can get the care they need. In 36 minutes, there will be a significant plan delivered in this parliament to address those beds that are needed in the system to make sure that there is capacity for people to get the treatment they can.

We absolutely regret any cancellation of elective surgery that has had to occur. It is done as a last resort. I don't want to see it happen because the more it happens the more pressure inevitably comes onto the system. People's delayed care quite often will end up as an emergency department visit down the track. I think that is one of the factors that we are seeing in the health system at the moment. People's delayed care, either delayed surgery, delayed outpatient appointments or delayed screening, means that they are coming to the emergency department for that care, often in a more advanced state of their condition than would have been otherwise.

That really does have an impact. It is regretful that that has to happen. Unfortunately, it is having to happen at the moment, but this is why we are so keen to invest in our health services, to build more beds and to make sure that people can get the care that they need.

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