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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-10-16 Daily Xml
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Angaston District Hospital Emergency Department

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (15:27): I, too, would like to take a brief moment to wish everyone a very happy National Carers Week. I sincerely thank you for your dedication and the quiet strength that you show to all of those who you care for. Thank you so much for being here in the parliament today and thank you to the member for Adelaide and our colleague in the other place, the Hon. Heidi Girolamo for pulling together the parliamentary group to recognise the impact that you have. The selflessness that you show is really so valuable. Keep it up.

I have a local issue that I would like to address in the house and it is in relation to the Angaston emergency department, which has been closed, it was revealed today, on 23 occasions across the last two years. Not only is that a huge inconvenience to people in my local community but you can imagine the serious angst and uncertainty that is creating. It was really great to see one of our local hardworking doctors, Dr Jennifer Glaetzer, speak about this issue today and in The Advertiser and the impact this is having on the local workforce and on our community more broadly.

This is an issue I have had families come to me and sit in my local electorate office and cry about, not being able to access services at their local hospital. I spoke to a mum who spoke about the near miss that she had with her son who suffers from epilepsy. When you hear stories from these families, it really does remind you of the importance of having local health care as close to home as possible, particularly in our regional communities. You can imagine how shocked I was when I heard the health minister's response to these 23 closures in my local community. On FIVEaa this morning, he said:

So, no doubt the opposition's always going to try to catastrophise what's going on, but I don't think that this is quite as significant as what's being made out.

That is the response that came from the state's health minister about a regional emergency department that has been closed on 23 occasions over the last two years. I have got to say, there is not much that leaves me gobsmacked—I am sure we have all seen lots of things in politics—but I was genuinely floored by that comment when I heard it live on radio, and so were many people in my local community.

I have not been surprised by the amount of people who have contacted my electorate office saying, 'How is it that this minister could make those comments about a service that we rely on in our local community?' I think that shows the passion and the dedication that people of the Barossa Valley and of Angaston have for their local health service. That was a shameful response from the health minister, and people in my community and in regional South Australia deserve much better. The minister also said:

…this is a very small emergency department, only 10 people come to it on average per day...

He went on to say that Tanunda is only 15 minutes away as well, which was an interesting comment, because all of the formal advice that has gone up on the Barossa Hills Fleurieu LHN Facebook page, which is the vehicle by which my local community is advised of these closures, actually encourages people to go to Gawler, which is some 30 minutes away, so not the 15 minutes down the road that the minister has been referring to.

One area that I have really been pushing for over the last couple of years has been the rollout of a program called SAVES, which is the SA Virtual Emergency Service. It is a really fantastic program that I appreciate is at several regional hospitals in South Australia, and that is great. It is not in my local patch, but I first wrote to the health minister about this two years ago, almost to the date, urging for this to be considered. It also has the backing from local doctors in my patch, so I will keep pushing for that to be rolled out. I genuinely think it will make a really big difference in my local community.

The minister also made reference to a doctor who unfortunately fell ill yesterday, and the minister advised that that illness was really responsible for the closure of the Angaston emergency department yesterday. We wish that doctor all the very best. If that does not underscore the fragility and the vulnerability of the health system in South Australia, I do not know what will. How can it be that the illness of one doctor can close an entire emergency department in my local community? We must do more. This government must do more, not only in rolling out SAVES but also having better and stronger workforce incentives on the table so that my hospital can stay open and, importantly, grow into the future.

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