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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-30 Daily Xml
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Women's and Children's Hospital

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:18): My question is for the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. When was the minister first advised that accreditation from the College of Intensive Care Medicine of the Women's and Children's Hospital Paediatric ICU was at risk and what action was taken by the minister at the time to rectify it?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:18): This is a concerning development in terms of the Women's and Children's Hospital, specifically the training accreditation for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. I was informed of the report that came from the College of Intensive Care Medicine on Monday afternoon, and I sought briefings from the Women's and Children's Health Network on the implications and the issues surrounding that and whether or not there were going to be particular impacts immediately in terms of training of future staff in the unit.

Subsequently as well, I have now asked Lindsey Gough, who is the chief executive of the Women's and Children's Health Network, to have prepared within the course of a fortnight a plan to make sure that we can rectify the issues that have been raised in the report from the college.

Mrs Hurn: When were you first told about the warning?

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: I have answered that.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: I have asked that that report be prepared within two weeks, in terms of the plan that will be in place to rectify the issues and the recommendations that were raised in relation to that report of the accreditation from the college. It is very important that we fix this issue because we need to train—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned for a second time. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —future doctors in the Women's and Children's Hospital in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. This is a very important part of the hospital, so important in fact that the concerns that were raised about the future layout of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit are one of the reasons why we have now proceeded in terms of the development of the new Women's and Children's Hospital on a new site. One of the key areas of concern that was being raised was about the connection between the intensive care unit and other services of the hospital. This is not an issue in terms of the staffing of the Women's and Children's Hospital that has sprung up overnight.

Mrs Hurn: When did you get the warning?

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Years and years of warnings from the—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned for a final time.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —doctors of the Women's and Children's Hospital in terms of the safety of services particularly for paediatric patients of the hospital have been there. In fact, the Medical Staff Society wrote a particularly damning letter signed by 200 doctors at the hospital. They wrote that on 21 October not of this year, not of last year, not of the year before, but in 2019. That letter was written to the former government raising concerns about the safety of services. That's why—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Patterson: When were you warned by the college?

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett!

Mr Whetstone: When were you warned by the college?

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: That is why we have taken action and made a very clear commitment at the election that we will invest in an additional 48 doctors at the Women's and Children's Hospital. Already two of those have been slated to be added in addition to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and we will be doing the work over the course of the next two weeks as to whether that now needs to be added to to address the concerns that have been raised by the college. We will get that plan in place to address these concerns. We are recruiting these extra doctors because these issues have been highlighted again and again—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —but were ignored repeatedly. That is why we are now investing in the additional 48 doctors at that hospital to make sure that our kids in South Australia get the services they need and the concerns of doctors can be addressed.

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