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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-04-09 Daily Xml
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Elective Surgery

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:40): My question is again to the Premier. Was the Premier first made aware that SA Health were considering cancelling elective surgeries in the lead-up to Easter, and did he support that?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:41): I just want to get my time lines right. The first conversation I had with the health minister, or indeed anyone in SA Health, regarding the prospect of a statewide elective surgery ban was on the day it was announced. In fact, I can be awfully specific for the benefit of the Leader of the Opposition because it is not a call that one receives frequently; it is the sort of one that I speak to the health minister frequently about, very frequently indeed. But that call was unusual so I remember exactly where I was. I was grabbing some lunch. I got out of the office for a moment, got out to lunch. I was at the Central Market getting something to takeaway. It certainly became takeaway after I got off the phone call from the health minister.

The health minister advised me of the challenge in terms of demand on the system at that particular point in time. He made me aware that an option was being contemplated within SA Health and that there was the prospect that the chief executive would make a decision to initiate a statewide elective surgery ban. The minister and I, during the course of that meeting, talked about the fact that, should that decision be made, a statement would be immediately released publicly, just as the minister is committed to do, that where such a statewide elective surgery ban takes place that the public are notified accordingly, which of course, I don't mind saying, is a departure from the practice that we saw that occurred under the previous government where statewide elective surgery bans were put in place without the public notification of doing so.

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