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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-05-16 Daily Xml
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Public Works Committee: New Golden Grove Ambulance Station

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:38): I move:

That the 69th report of the committee, entitled New Golden Grove Ambulance Station, be noted.

The Department for Health and Wellbeing (SA Health) proposes to construct a new ambulance station at Golden Grove. This will provide modern, fit-for-purpose facilities to meet the South Australian Ambulance Service's operational needs and enable appropriate emergency provisions to Adelaide's northern suburbs and surrounding areas.

At the 2022 state election, the government pledged to improve the infrastructure of the South Australian Ambulance Service (SAAS) with a $70 million commitment to build four new ambulance stations, alongside the rebuilding of four existing stations in high-priority areas. This will provide a significant expansion of service delivery capabilities and capacity for SAAS to manage emergency responses across the Adelaide metropolitan area and surrounding regions. In addition to the new and rebuilt stations, the commitment includes the purchase of 36 new vehicles and recruitment of 350 additional staff.

The northern suburbs are the fastest growing region in metropolitan Adelaide by population, and forecasting shows that this trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. This new ambulance station will help address the emergency service provision for this growing population. Located on the intersection of The Grove Way and The Golden Way, the station will complement existing stations in Redwood Park and Parafield, as previous reviews of SAAS service delivery highlighted challenges in the response approach in and around the Golden Grove area. It will alleviate the demand on and support these existing stations, which will have a flow-on effect to servicing the surrounding areas.

Unlike some SAAS catchments, where hospitals are relatively central and can provide a secondary response location for ambulance crews, in the north-eastern suburbs, particularly Golden Grove, the hospitals are either south, with Modbury Hospital, or north, with the Lyell McEwin Hospital, with Golden Grove and neighbouring Greenwith in the middle. The planned ambulance station in Golden Grove will address this issue and be valuable for response patterns in this area.

The new ambulance station will include: a main garage for six ambulances, with supporting amenities; two undercover external car parks for light fleet vehicles; offices with workstations; a training room; a study room with workstations and supporting equipment; crew rest room, including kitchen and dining room, and four personal break rooms; ancillary supporting accommodation, including an ICT room, amenities and circulation spaces; and 16 staff and visitor car parking spaces.

Emergency vehicles will be able to exit the site and head both north and south on The Grove Way, with a second access point to the north allowing ambulance and light fleet vehicle entry and exit movements. The main garage will use a herringbone layout to maximise space, while also allowing for the required drive-through function for ambulances to enter and exit without restriction. A purpose-designed curved driveway from the garage allows for safe and quick traversing to exit the site for operations.

The capital cost of the project is $11.2 million, comprising $7 million for construction and $4.2 million for land acquisition. Construction has commenced, with expected completion by February 2025. The expected outcomes of the project are:

improved ambulance response coverage for consumers in the outer northern and north-eastern suburbs;

increased capacity for additional crews and vehicles in order to meet increasing demand;

improved dispatch and turnaround times after an incident;

enhanced consumer care to the community;

additional and expanded SAAS crew training facilities; and

opportunities for future expansion to meet growth if required.

One of the primary objectives of the SA Health Strategic Plan is for South Australians to experience the best health care in Australia, with this project achieving this objective by strengthening primary health care. It also enhances hospital care by providing services close to where people live. Furthermore, it aligns with the SAAS Strategic Plan and the state government's election commitment to improve infrastructure, increase staffing and provide additional resources for the South Australian Ambulance Service.

SA Health has incorporated sustainable development principles into the scope of the project. To help achieve these sustainable aspirations, several measures have been integrated into the design of the new station. These include the use of energy efficient heating, cooling and lighting that is fully electrified, a design that allows for high levels of daylight whilst mitigating solar glare, the use of water efficient sanitary and tapware fixtures, and the collection of rainwater for flushing and landscape irrigation. Additionally, incorporated design measures will increase adaptability and allow changes of use with minimal impact to ensure the building is futureproofed.

The project will follow best practice principles for project procurement and management, as advocated by the state government and construction industry authorities. Risk management will form an integral part of this process, identifying and assessing risk and ensuring appropriate management or mitigation measures are incorporated into the project delivery.

A key risk is ongoing capital pressures and supply chain delays, alongside the continued inflation of prices. Another risk is that the site is newly procured and there is limited knowledge and information available about the possibility of hazardous materials. Project teams have reviewed the site, as well as geotechnical data, and will conduct destructive tests and ground boreholes to identify any potential risks.

Engagement and consultation will be a key theme throughout the project. Consultation has occurred with various subject matter experts within SA Health and SAAS, including work health and safety, infection control and hygiene advisers, as well as industrial bodies. The local community has been consulted as part of an ongoing two-way process of engagement, which has included targeted letter drops to neighbours of the site and an evening information session held in September last year. The Central Archive in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation has no record of Aboriginal sites within the project area. The site has no registered or identified non-Aboriginal heritage value.

The committee examined written and oral evidence in relation to the construction of the new Golden Grove ambulance station. Witnesses who appeared before the committee were: Tim Packer, Executive Director, Infrastructure, Department for Health and Wellbeing; John Harrison, Director, Building Projects, Department for Infrastructure and Transport; Rob Elliott, Chief Executive Officer, South Australian Ambulance Service; and Paul Lemmer, Executive Director, South Australian Ambulance Service. I thank the witnesses for their time.

Based upon the evidence considered, and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public work.

Mrs PEARCE (King) (11:45): I, too, rise to provide my support on this matter. Having an ambulance station in Golden Grove has been something my community has been longing for, for quite some time. SAAS has already announced this location and shared with us that we have seen prolonged response times in that community, and there was a real desire to do something about that.

When this location was chosen to build the station, it was certainly welcome news for the area. Once they heard this news, Cynthia and William from Golden Grove said to me that they had been waiting for quite some time. They want to know that an ambulance will come when they really need it, and we have taken that into serious consideration to make sure the location that this station will be situated at will have the optimum results and impact in my local community.

It is a good location to build, if I do say so myself. It is one that has direct access to major arterial roads in my local community, and it certainly is in a location that will help support other local stations that have been doing a lot of the heavy lifting, like Ridgehaven and Parafield Gardens. On that note, I would very much like to thank the amazing team at Parafield Gardens for currently hosting the 32 paramedics that we have also employed who will be based and situated at Golden Grove once the build is complete. We certainly appreciate you being so accommodating because having those paramedics already on the roads means we are already seeing benefits to my local community in terms of response times and receiving adequate health care in the area as well.

As I have said, we have certainly moved quickly on our pledge to be able to hire more ambulance officers and paramedics to be able to improve response times in our community, and we are moving incredibly fast to ensure that we are building the critical infrastructure that is needed for these crews to be able to deliver the high-quality care that is needed.

It is also great to see that some of the officers and paramedics who will be based at this station are locally grown. One of my favourite stories, which I like to share with the community, is the impact that it had on Sam, who was born, raised, grew up and is continuing to live in the north-east. He was actually a painter by trade, but when he heard the need was increasing in this space, it was something that he wanted to do, but it was that final push to go, 'I'm making the leap. I'm jumping into the space.' Now that he is fully qualified, he will be one of the very first paramedics who will be stationed at the Golden Grove station, servicing the community that has supported him as he has grown up, and one that he is still proud to be living in as well.

It was great to see how keen the community was, and the feedback provided, during the engagement sessions that were hosted last September. A lot of people were eager to hear more about what is happening and how that will support them. For those who have not been up to Golden Grove, and Greenwith in particular, we have a very interesting design where not everything is square in terms of the blocks, so it can get convoluted.

We are doing everything we can to ensure that there is direct access as much as possible to really service the area but also takes into consideration the growth that we are expecting in the area as well. Something that was reiterated by SAAS was that that was taken into consideration to ensure that this station will be able to continue to meet the needs of the community as it continues to grow in the years ahead.

I would also like to share a bit about the feedback I have had from others in the community about what this build means for them. Frank, a local resident who lives in Greenwith, is actually working for the company that will be helping to build the station. His company is responsible for building and putting up the walls at the centre, and he shared with me recently at a Little Athletics event that he is really proud that he gets to drive past this site every day on the way to school drop-off and share with his kids a bit about what he does for a living, but now he is able to share on top of that that he is doing something that will benefit the community that services them as well. With those few words, I would like to provide my support.

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:49): I take this opportunity to thank the member for King for her contribution and for her sterling work as a member of the Public Works Committee. I also take this opportunity to express my support for this project and to thank the member for King for her praise for the hardworking staff at the Parafield Ambulance Station, which is in my electorate. With that, I commend the motion to the house.

Motion carried.

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