House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-17 Daily Xml

Contents

Flinders Medical Centre

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:48): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. How many storage spaces are being used to treat patients right across the health system in South Australia, and what type of patient experience does it deliver? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: ABC radio on 9 November reported that the minister had defended the decision to use storerooms at the Flinders Medical Centre to host inpatient beds, despite the fact that Dr Kerrie Freeman, the Chief Executive of the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, stated that it doesn't deliver good patient experiences.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:48): I think this is perhaps a repeat of the question that was raised the other day, and I again refer the member to the comments that were made by Dr Freeman on the radio—which she is seemingly quoting from—in terms that these are redevelopments of spaces within Flinders Medical Centre to make sure that additional beds can go in, in the short term. It was only a few months ago that the shadow minister was out holding a press conference out the front of Julia Farr Centre saying that we had to move patients into Julia Farr Centre in urgent form even though—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —in the middle of winter we were supposedly going to move patients into the Julia Farr Centre—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —even though there was no heating in the building whatsoever, that the building had been completely stripped bare by the previous government to sell it off—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —that none of the appropriate services were included—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —inside the building and that all of the kitchen and other facilities you would need to support people inside that building were not inside that building. I beg forgiveness, in that I will take my advice from Dr Kerrie Freeman and the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network more than I will take my advice from the shadow minister, who would have had patients moved—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —into a building without heating or cooling in the middle of winter.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Schubert and then the member for Waite.