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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-12-01 Daily Xml
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Women's and Children's Hospital

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:18): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. When was the government first notified about the College of Intensive Care Medicine's matters of concern and what immediate action did the government take to rectify them? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: On 17 October, the college inspection team visited the Women's and Children's Hospital and noted significant concerns, with the most damning and distressing being that sick children who are fighting for their life were being left without a doctor in sight—and that inspection was more than a month ago.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:18): I already answered this question yesterday in that I was informed of—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —this on Monday and provided a copy of the letter on this Monday.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned. You have asked the question.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: The member for Schubert raises or makes allegations in relation to the care of children overnight. She should be very careful because exactly what she is describing was in place for every single day that the Liberal Party were in government in South Australia. Every single day the Liberal Party were in government there was one registrar—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —doing the overnight coverage.

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Schubert!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Every single day the Liberal Party was in government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —there could be Code Blues—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Florey! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —where that registrar was called to other emergencies in the hospital. So this is not something that magically happened on 19 March, when there was a change here. Every single day that they were in government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned. Member for Hammond!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —this was exactly the same situation. So if the shadow minister—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —is so concerned about children being at risk, as she alleges, then that was the situation for every single day that they were in government.

Mrs Hurn: What are you doing about it now?

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is on a final warning.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: Now, having received this advice on Monday, we have asked for a plan to be put in place, on my desk within two weeks, of how we will address each of those recommendations that were ignored—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —by the previous government, to make sure—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned. The member for Hartley is warned. The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —that we can address the concerns that were raised by the college—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond is warned for a second time.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —and make sure that we can regain the accreditation for training at that unit in the hospital. But the shadow minister—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned for a second time.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —should be very careful of what she insinuates.

The Hon. P.B. Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier is warned.

The Hon. P.B. Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier is warned for a second time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: I made reference yesterday to previous concerns that were raised with the previous government by over 200 doctors who signed letters to the previous government that were completely ignored—completely ignored. The work that was done by the medicine unit of paediatric medicine across the hospital, of the doctors themselves putting together plans—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Flinders!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —for how additional doctors should be put in place in that hospital, that was completely ignored by the previous government, whereas this government made a commitment at the election to fully implement that plan of 48 additional doctors. We have already hired some. There are a significant number that will be coming online in February next year, and we will deliver that plan in full that was proposed by the doctors, that was ignored by those opposite, and we will make sure that those extra resources go into caring for the kids of this state.

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