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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-08 Daily Xml
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Frontline Health Workers

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. What action will the government take to ensure that South Australia doesn't lose frontline health workers to the Eastern States? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: The Victorian government recently announced that they will pay for the university course fees for more than 10,000 nursing and midwifery students. This, of course, follows the New South Wales government, which is paying $3,000 thank you payments for their frontline workers. Yet here in South Australia, this government is stripping the most basic of incentives: free hospital car parking for frontline workers.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:38): I thank the member for her question. This is a government that stands with and stands by nurses and wants to support them by providing more nurses to work in our public health system. We took an extensive range of policies to the election, and central amongst them was the idea and the fact that nurses are significantly overwhelmed in terms of the pressure on them because of the workload and the lack of staffing in our hospitals. We need to invest more to make sure that the nurses are there to provide those services. So we have committed 300 additional nurses to work across our healthcare system to make sure that—

Mrs Hurn: Three hundred.

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —they've got the support when they go to work that there are more nurses there to provide that care and support. In addition to that, we have also made the very strong commitment that during this term of parliament we will be legislating for nurse-patient ratios to make sure—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —that there is a specific, appropriate number of nurses for the right number of patients in our wards across our hospital system. The evidence of this, where it has already been implemented in Queensland and Victoria, is that not only does it ease the pressure on nurses but it actually provides better care for patients and ultimately leads to—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is on three warnings.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —fewer people having to be readmitted to hospital, because they can get that better care while they are in hospital. That is a critical function, and we have started the consultation with our nurses, working on that at the moment.

The other factor we specifically took to the election was to implement security measures with our nurses, because for years and years the then government refused to implement a 10-point plan in relation to nurse security, as has been in place in Victoria and other states. They refused to do it. They refused to work with the nurses on putting in place those security measures. We are putting in place those security measures—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

Ms Stinson: Chuck her out.

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —to make sure that our nurses are secure when they get to work and provide that excellent care for people. We will be implementing a 10-point plan—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —with the ANMF to make sure we have the security measures in place. We are already taking action in relation to one of those real areas of concern, which is in relation to the Port Lincoln hospital. We are implementing a review of security there, where a number of issues of assault have happened to our nurses there. We are undertaking that independent review, as we committed to do at the election. This is an issue we are taking seriously. We are hiring additional nurses, and we are making sure that we are working with—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —our universities. Another initiative we are putting in place is we have also announced a significant range of training.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier is called to order. The member for Schubert is on three warnings. Member for Flinders! Minister, please be seated.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier is warned. The member for Schubert can leave the chamber for the remainder of question time under 137A. The member for Schubert, in fact, had the benefit of five warnings.

The honourable member for Schubert having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Another measure we announced recently, the Premier and I and the ANMF and UniSA, is that we are undertaking a significant number of training opportunities for our nurses. We know there is going to be a pipeline of requirements, particularly in areas such as mental health care, ICU nursing and other areas of speciality nursing, and we need those additional levels of skills to be able to be provided. We are now providing those scholarships for our nurses to undertake that training, particularly working with UniSA and some other training providers, including, I believe, Melbourne University, which is part of that as well.

We are also implementing a better starting scheme for our new graduates, working with the ANMF, to make sure they get their best stepping up when they start their jobs working with SA Health so that they can get their best chance in working in their career, because we want to keep those nurses in the long term.

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