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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-05 Daily Xml
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Naracoorte Hospital

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Health. Can the minister advise the house when the report into service delivery and infrastructure requirements relating to Naracoorte Hospital and surrounding regions will be completed? With your leave, sir, and that of the house I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: In last year's budget the state government announced $1 million would be spent on investigating service needs at the ageing Naracoorte Hospital. Of that, $250,000 was going to be directed towards examining services across the wider electorate, including Penola, Millicent, Kingston and Bordertown hospitals.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:37): I thank the member for MacKillop for his question, and I thank him for his advocacy for the Naracoorte area but also for health service planning across his region. The member is correct that in the last state budget the government made an allocation of $1 million for a planning study in relation to health services at Naracoorte, and I thank the Treasurer and the Premier for their support of that funding.

I know that has been well received, and it is obviously in excess of our election commitment to invest $8 million in the Naracoorte area. Of course, that was funding that was reallocated from the original $662 million city basketball stadium that was previously proposed. We committed to at least a $100 million investment across regional South Australia.

That $1 million is going to essentially two things. One is that $750,000 is going to specific master planning, detailed planning of future stages of works to be undertaken at Naracoorte Hospital. I know that the member for MacKillop is a strong advocate, and I know there are many other people in the Naracoorte area who, I think it is fair to say, have for many decades have been advocating for substantial capital works to be undertaken at the Naracoorte Hospital.

We have always been very clear that in terms of the $8 million that we are investing at the moment there is clearly just the first stage of works that need to happen for a very aged site at Naracoorte. That $750,000 will go to the detailed planning for the future stages that have to happen, so that when decisions are made by government about future stages we have the plans and strategies ready to go for that.

As the member highlighted in his question, the other $250,000 of that project will be going to a broader regional clinical services plan, covering as the member said not only the services in terms of Naracoorte but also across Penola, Millicent, Kingston, Bordertown, across that region, in terms of making sure that we have a future clinical services plan for the health services for a region which I think the Premier and the whole government have made very clear is very important for the future of this state in terms of the Limestone Coast.

So we will be doing that work, working with the community, working with clinicians to identify that plan. That will be happening through the course of this year. I expect that it will probably be finalised sometime next year but if it can be completed this year then that will be good. I look forward to seeing the results of that because that will help to guide both decisions of the state government, the Department for Health and Wellbeing, and also importantly the Limestone Coast Local Health Network in our devolved governance model for health services as well, in terms of making sure that we have critical planning for health services into the future.

I think clearly when it comes to health services—and I know this is something that the member for MacKillop raises with me often—critical to that is workforce and making sure that we have appropriate workforce in our regional areas. I think we have the opportunity on a number of fronts to really make some positive inroads.

One is that Flinders University has been successful in getting one of the new regional medical schools for Australia that will be established here in South Australia, where students will be based in regional areas receiving all of their tuition, not just a year or six months of it but the entirety of their medical training for the first time, which is really positive. In fact, it also includes an additional 20 medical places coming to the state as part of that arrangement from the commonwealth government.

The second element of that that is critical as well is the work we are doing on the single employer model, which I know people in his area are very excited about, and we are looking forward to positive news hopefully from the commonwealth government on that shortly.

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