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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-31 Daily Xml
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Lyell McEwin Hospital

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:48): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister advise whether the additional 48 beds at the Lyell McEwin Hospital will be subacute or acute beds and what services to patients they will provide?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:49): We were delighted to be able to announce yesterday that we will expand that facility with 48 additional beds. I thank the Premier and the Treasurer for their support to do so.

We went to the election very clearly saying that these would be subacute beds, which is obviously a lower level acuity of beds. I think that the Lyell McEwin is interested in terms of working over the next few years, before the beds are eventually commissioned and opened, on whether there might be a mix of subacute and acute beds and having that additional capacity and operating facility over the next few years.

Very importantly, this is something where we are keen to get cracking straightaway. This is a project which I have raised both with SA Health and the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network as a high priority, in terms of construction works to begin and to complete, because we need these facilities right away.

I have met with the doctors in the emergency department at the Lyell McEwin. I have been there myself and seen what they are dealing with, and they are dealing every day with patients who are stuck waiting for a bed inside the emergency department—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: —and because of that—which was a system that you started—and because of the lack of capacity for inpatient beds it means that they can't get through the hospital and they end up causing delays and blockages in the emergency department. That is inevitably what causes ramping, inevitably what causes delays in terms of patients who are waiting for a 000 call that can't arrive on time. The quicker we can establish these the better.

The floor print in terms of the facility, because of the foresight that happened back when the previous Labor government established the stage C redevelopment of Lyell McEwin Hospital, means that we can replicate that floor print over the two levels above the current inpatient building and below where the helipad is currently. There is a shell in place that will enable that work to happen. We are going to get cracking straightaway.

This is just one part of a very comprehensive plan, and I am sure the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Schubert will be very interested in seeing the Treasurer hand down this budget on Thursday and the comprehensive range of initiatives that this government is undertaking to address that access block and address the blockages in our system to create more capacity and make sure that the patients can get the care that they need on time.

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