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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-13 Daily Xml
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Paediatric Intensive Care Unit

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:18): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will today's announcement regarding the Paediatric ICU at the current Women's and Children's Hospital guarantee its accreditation? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: It was revealed last year that the PICU at the current Women's and Children's Hospital lost its accreditation to teach young doctors. The government today announced a $20 million upgrade to the ICU, but it's not clear now whether this now guarantees its accreditation.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:18): As members will know, back in 2018 the College of Intensive Care Medicine sent the previous government a letter warning them that if infrastructure wasn't upgraded at the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit they would lose accreditation, and nothing happened—absolutely nothing happened—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —and then, lo and behold, four years later the college said that accreditation for training—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —would be lost. That is why we are taking action, both in terms of the announcement that has been made today in relation to investments going in to upgrade that unit, the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: So is that a maybe but we're not sure?

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —but also the previous announcements that we have made in relation to additional doctors that would need to go into that unit, to make sure that we can equal the requirements that have been set for the college.

The Hon. N.F. Cook: That's what you did for four years, hiding the mess. You had the letter.

The SPEAKER: Member for Hurtle Vale!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: So we're not sitting on our hands with that warning that was issued back in 2018, like those opposite. We are getting on with the job. We will continue to work with the College of Intensive Care Medicine to make sure we can get that accreditation back because that is obviously important for training our future health workforce. Of course, that is separate to the safety and quality accreditation, which is done by by different body; this is in relation to the training of doctors in the unit. It is very important because, as we have previously noted, our desire is to continue to increase our health workforce and obviously we need to make sure that we have that training accreditation to do so.

I thank the Treasurer for his support in relation to having that upgrade funded in Thursday's state budget. We will now get to work on this immediately to get that upgraded as soon as possible. Of course, in the context of what is a very constrained site at the Women's and Children's Hospital—a very old site with a lot of outdated units and facilities—ultimately the full answer is to have the new Women's and Children's Hospital. I am very delighted to inform the house that this is a government that will deliver that as a bigger hospital—not the previous plan, which was just going to be one extra overnight paediatric bed. We are increasing the number of beds at the hospital—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Chaffey! Member for Frome!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —particularly with the increase in demand for birthing in the state, led by the Premier and his wife. We need to make sure that we've got that capacity for the future. Clearly, we need to make sure that that is a hospital that is not going to be full on the day it opens, as would have been in place under the previous plan. That is why we have made the difficult long-term decision in terms of making sure that we've got a new Women's and Children's Hospital that is going to last in the long term.

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