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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-06-16 Daily Xml
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Mount Barker Hospital

Ms PRATT (Frome) (15:02): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I think you will be pleased. My question is for the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister confirm whether the new Mount Barker hospital will be rebuilt on a different site from the current one, and, if so, which site has been secured?

The SPEAKER: That's an excellent question.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:02): Thank you, sir. Both you and I, I am sure, always appreciate the opportunity in this house where we can talk about this government's commitment to the new Mount Barker hospital. This is going to be a real game changer for the people who live in the Adelaide Hills, where we know that the population is going up and up and up, particularly in the Mount Barker region but also in associated communities, such as Nairne, where there is additional population growth as well.

We have seen that the number of beds at the Mount Barker hospital has been flatlined at 34 beds for decades and decades, despite that population growth. So we have announced—and it was in the budget last week—a $220 million investment in a new Mount Barker hospital, of which we are bringing forward money into the forward estimates of $127 million (off the top of my head) of investment into the forward estimates to get that working.

What we said when we announced this project before the election was that our preference was for that to be on the existing site, but we are going to consider whether a greenfield site will be considered as well; we are going to consider both options. However, our preference was for the existing site because, very clearly, if we can build it on the existing site that gives us the ability to open more beds, open more services sooner than if we built it at a new site and we have to wait until the whole project is complete to provide that additional capacity.

When you are looking at a project that is obviously going to take a few years to build, that is a significant period of time when the population in Mount Barker is growing quite rapidly now and we need those services in place at the moment. It is clearly our preference to build it on the existing site; however, we are examining the options of a greenfield site as well. Progress is continuing.

I met with the infrastructure team in SA Health only this week to talk about the progress they have underway in terms of the planning for this project, getting teams on board to help with the design and assessment of the project as soon as possible because we don't want to waste a minute in providing those services for the Adelaide Hills, which is very different—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I am listening carefully.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —from the approach we had from the previous government. In fact, there was a video that went online a few days before the election from the member for Heysen and the former Minister for Health Stephen Wade, who were talking down our commitment to the new Mount Barker hospital. The former Minister for Health even went as far as to suggest that he thought this might be a waste of taxpayers' money.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There is a point of order, which I will hear under 134.

Ms Pratt interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Frome! I will hear the member for Morialta.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Standing order 98: we asked this question in the hope that the minister would spend four minutes talking about this important project in your area and what the government is doing, and he is wasting some of his time and the house's time talking about the former government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member well knows that the test is substance, and there is a good deal of substance in the answer.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Very clearly, there was concern from those opposite that this might be a waste of taxpayers' money. I can assure members that this is absolutely going to be well worth taxpayers' money—investing in the people who live in Mount Barker, in new services for people, in tripling the number of beds at that hospital and in making sure the people in the Adelaide Hills can get the care they need.

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