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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-02-23 Daily Xml
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Flinders Medical Centre

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:23): My question is to the Premier. Is the Premier aware of any patients being given beds in storage spaces at Flinders Medical Centre and, if so, will he commit to making sure this doesn't happen again? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: A sick patient wrote on social media, and I quote:

Thank you Flinders Hospital after a horrible few hour[s] I get to sleep in the storage room. Peter Malinauskas all I can do is cry.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:24): Not only do I sympathise with the patient concerned but I am going to do something about it, including delivering a $400 million upgrade to the Flinders Medical Centre—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley! Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —the sort of thing that if that decision was made four years ago, that poor patient might not be in the situation that they are in now.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Premier, please be seated. The member for Morialta will depart the chamber under 137A, and the member for Badcoe is on her final warning. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: For the remainder of question time.

The honourable member for Morialta having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The challenges facing our health problem are serious and what that requires is a substantial policy response. That is why, in the lead-up to the federal election I was very glad that the then opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, heard my government's call for a $200 million capital investment on top of a $200 million capital investment from the state government to see to the biggest upgrade to the Flinders Medical Centre that we have seen in decades.

The good news is that program is moving at pace. Only this morning, I was with the Prime Minister at FMC announcing that the first of the 136 beds—

Mrs Hurn: Because you moved the beds to the Repat.

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned.

Ms Pratt: You're fixing up mistakes from five years ago.

The SPEAKER: The member for Frome is warned. The Premier.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The first of the 136 beds that are being delivered as a consequence of that investment is coming on line next year, but more than that we have also accelerated a separate effort again, separate to the $400 million investment, that will see an additional 26 beds being provided at Flinders Medical Centre. That stands—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is on the final warning.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —in significant contrast to the policy that we know hasn't served Flinders well and the best example of that, of course, is an expansion to the emergency department which was pursued under the former government and which was meritorious. The problem, of course, was that they expanded the emergency department and then closed beds in wards behind it, so when the patient had to get out of the emergency department to go to a bed inside the hospital there were fewer rather than more.

What we see is an expanding population around the southern suburbs, which requires not fewer beds but more beds. That's why we have $400 million for the biggest increase in beds at Flinders in decades in the medium term, and in the short term we have an additional 26 beds coming on line as quickly as possible. Part of that is able to be facilitated because of a separate investment that is happening yet again at the Repat hospital.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Frome.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: What we are doing is—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is on a final warning.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: What we are doing is dramatically increasing the number of beds in the system. If you have more beds, you need more people to staff the beds, so it turns out we are employing a lot more nurses, well in excess of an additional 300 nurses in net terms. In fact, that number is accelerating again. Then we need more doctors, so it turns out we are employing a lot more doctors too. It turns out they don't grow on trees, as those opposite, I think, will appreciate, so we have a recruitment schedule that is ramping up throughout the course of the term of government.

We are also employing a lot more ambulance officers. It turns out we are employing 350 additional of those, long overdue. While we are at it, it turns out we have decided to give them a pay rise for the first time in five years too. What we are doing is a comprehensive policy. None of this is going to happen quickly. You know that; we know that. We were honest about that before the election, but we are delivering it and what we will see is it will progressively ramp up between now and March 2026.

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