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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-10-18 Daily Xml
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Narungga Electorate

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:35): I rise today to inform the house about the lengths to which my community and I are going in order to finally draw attention to the state of our local health system. We have some wonderful people who work in our local health network, people who live locally, contribute to our local economies and who, unfortunately, are placed under enormous stress at work because our local health system is under extreme duress.

Over the past five or so years that I have had the tremendous pleasure to be the representative for our region in this place, I have diligently passed on the concerns of our local community to the decision-makers for consideration. There have been some horrible experiences shared with me along the way, people who have just not had the sort of experience they ought to have had when they visited such a facility when in need of emergency health care. Despite passing on those stories and the forcible lobbying for greater improvements to our health system, those pleas appear to have fallen upon deaf ears.

Therefore, we are launching a petition. We aim to get 10,000 signatures, which will trigger an inquiry before the parliament, and then we can ask the important questions to those with the power to make decisions. The petition we have launched has five clauses. Firstly, we are calling for the equitable distribution of GPs across our entire state. We acknowledge that there is a shortage of people deciding to study to become GPs and that there are limited levers for the state government to pull in order to remedy the situation.

It is government's job to solve these sorts of problems, and this parliament should be loudly lobbying the federal government to modify the Medicare rebate scheme to incentivise regional practice as well as any other mechanism they can activate. Having timely access to a GP would ultimately ease the pressure on hospitals, and it simply needs to change for the betterment of all our regional communities.

Secondly, we are calling for regional hospitals to be funded and staffed according to their population catchment area rather than according to historical activity statistics. Activity statistics can be misleading, especially when currently, unfortunately, so many locals choose to skip local hospitals altogether and drive straight to town for their health care. Potential patients are often turned away, redirected or not recorded for a variety of reasons, which means bureaucrats are not aware of the needs and demands of our local regional hospitals.

Thirdly, we want a minister for regional health who can bang on the cabinet table on our behalf. At the moment, the Minister for Health has the unenviable task of presiding over an enormous, complex department with distinct problems in metropolitan and regional areas. He could surely use the assistance, and we would certainly benefit from somebody acting on our behalf at cabinet meetings.

Next, we want the urgent reclassification of Wallaroo Hospital to a level befitting its status as the major hospital in our community. The estimated population catchment area for Port Pirie is some 20,000 people, and Wallaroo Hospital has a combined core and extended catchment area estimated at 35,000 people. Additionally, the Yorke Peninsula Copper Coast area attracts some 400,000 tourists annually, compared with Port Pirie's estimated 200,000 people, any of whom may require medical attention during their visitation.

If I reference the NYP/Port Pirie health service plans, we can see that Port Pirie is resourced at a level 3 emergency classification, whereas Wallaroo is only at level 2. Port Pirie is resourced at level 3 for medical inpatient services, whereas Wallaroo is at level 2. Port Pirie is resourced at level 4 for cancer care services, while Wallaroo is level 3. Port Pirie has 52 beds, where Wallaroo has 21.

The Wallaroo service catchment area is forecast to increase by 11 per cent in the next four years, yet somehow Port Pirie's hospital is due for an upgrade soon, and we have already referenced the difference in the catchment area statistics. It is our view that Wallaroo Hospital must be elevated to at least equal status with the Port Pirie hospital to properly serve our community.

Finally, we ask that Port Pirie be reclassified from the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network into the Flinders and Upper North Local Health Network. The Yorke and Northern has the second highest population, at over 75,000 people, and easily the highest number of hospitals within it (at 16) of all the health networks. The board has been gifted an extraordinarily difficult task; in comparison, the Flinders and Upper North LHN has nearly half as many people to serve and only six hospitals, as opposed to 16.

Shifting Pirie into that LHN would ensure that Wallaroo Hospital is recognised and appropriately resourced as the major hospital, as it should be, and that the board has a more manageable task inevitably resulting in better outcomes for all our hospitals—Yorketown, Maitland, Minlaton and Ardrossan—not just Wallaroo.

We are sick of it. We are sick of asking for improvements for our local health system and having it fall on deaf ears. That being the case, I launched a petition yesterday with Dr Rod Pearce; Dr Ashraf; the chairwoman of the YP HAC, Dot Marschall; and the chairman of the NYP HAC, Stewart MacIntosh. They all share my concerns.

The quote from Albert Einstein goes along the lines that 'insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results', which appears to ring true when it comes to rural health. Governments just cannot expect system improvements without instigating change, and I am sick of raising concerns with the government and having colleagues agree that something must be done and there being no apparent urgency to make something happen.

Judging by the response to the petition so far, the community of Narungga wholeheartedly agrees with the need for collective community action. I look forward to updating the house as the petition progresses and ultimately presenting in excess of 10,000 signatures in due course.

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