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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-09-19 Daily Xml
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HOSPITAL FUNDING

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:57): I move:

That this council calls upon the state government to:

1. desist from reducing funding to the McLaren Vale and Districts War Memorial Hospital; and

2. abandon any plan to cut the Acute Referral Unit or any other emergency treatment or referral services at the Repatriation General Hospital.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I thank my colleagues for seconding this important motion. First, I want to focus on the McLaren Vale and Districts War Memorial Hospital. Right at the moment, as I see it, and as the community in the southern suburbs sees it, that hospital has a real cloud hanging over it, and that is very unfortunate. I do not know why the government is determined to put so much stress on the board, on the staff, on volunteers and on those who use that hospital as it is at the moment, and I call on it to eliminate that stress immediately by coming up with a commitment to continue funding the McLaren Vale hospital.

The history of the hospital is that it was built by returned men and women around the end of World War II, and it has served the district fantastically ever since. In fact, I declare my personal interest here: my wife was born there, my three children were born there, and my mother, in her later years when she needed extra health care and respite, also spent a considerable amount of time there. So I know that hospital well, as indeed do a lot of other people who have had the use of it.

That hospital is an efficient hospital. It is a hospital that is there because of the dedication of the community, the original vision and foresight of people like the Johnston and Dennis families and those long-standing traditional McLaren Vale and Fleurieu Peninsula families, and, from there on, successively, primarily due to the commitment of volunteers (who raised tens of thousands of dollars a year to help that hospital) and also the wonderful staff and the boards working there over the years.

It is not as though the hospital board, staff, volunteers and the community have not been prepared to look at diversification and other additional opportunities for income. In fact, the grounds are considerably large, and they have gone into building doctors' surgeries within the hospital precinct, which has been a good cash-flow initiative and a good general practitioner health service related initiative. They have also gone into building retirement units, which also gives them a cash flow. They assist and work with Meals on Wheels to provide and distribute food to people in need throughout the community. They have also looked at a lot of other diverse opportunities for the hospital, such as the ambulance station that sits on that particular precinct of land, for which I unfairly copped a fair bit of flak from this government when it first came in. However, it is there now and it is in the best interests of the community.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: That was another one, Terry. As a candidate back in 1992-93, I can remember going to the McLarens on the Lake main venue, which was chock-a-block and overflowing with people. The then Independent who joined the Labor Party, the Hon. Martyn Evans, was the Minister for Health. He put up a proposition that the hospital could either be taken over by the public health department or any funding support could or would be pulled. There was enormous uproar in the community and people rebelled against the government at that time.

I would have thought that whilst the Hon. John Hill was not a member of parliament or even a candidate at that time—he was close to becoming a candidate for Kaurna when Lorraine Rosenberg won the seat—he would have been aware of the fact that there was enormous angst throughout the electorates of Kaurna, Mawson, Heysen and also Finniss when it came to what the government was going to do there.

Soon after, there was a change of government. I was involved in working with the community and the government then to ensure that there was a committed funding model for the hospital. That model started off at about $1.1 million a year; it is now up to about $1.5 million a year. This government in its wisdom—until now—has seen the benefit of supporting that hospital. The hospital generates much more income than that, obviously, and it does a lot of private work as well. However, during that period of time, we saw this government renege on the hospital's birthing unit, so we could no longer have a birthing unit there. Notwithstanding that, to be fair to this government, it did actually continue to fund the hospital.

When the government got into enormous trouble with the overall health budget, it called in the razor gang, and the razor gang reported that this money would be better spent elsewhere. It would not be better spent elsewhere. In fact, I believe evidence is available to show that, compared to the Flinders or Noarlunga hospitals, certain operational procedures are much cheaper at the McLaren Vale Hospital. So there will not be a saving; I put that on the public record.

I also place on the public record that we have already gone through the ranks with the Keith Hospital. I trust that in your retirement, Sir, you will not have to ever access that hospital. As you will be living down there, I trust that you will be a champion for the Keith Hospital and for having sufficient money put into it.

The PRESIDENT: Private hospital.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: I trust that will happen, sir, and I will keep in touch with you on that. To come back to the McLaren Vale hospital, surely we have seen the damage already done to the Keith Hospital. Why repeat that damage with the McLaren Vale hospital? There is perhaps an opportunity to change some of the modelling and the board are open to that, and the hospital staff and the community are open to that. What they are not open to is two things, as I understand it: (1) the reduction of one cent from the $1.5 million that is committed from the government to that hospital every year and (2) the fact that we need the government funding and operational procedures to ensure the viability of the theatres so that the private operations of the theatre can proceed as well. They go hand in hand.

I put this on the public record in this house now and I ask colleagues to support me in making the government see sense that this is the wrong decision and the wrong recommendation. The minister saw the sense in the wrong recommendation when it came to the Noarlunga Hospital and he ruled that out immediately. Why not also rule out the proposed cuts to the McLaren Vale hospital? If these cuts occur, then I intend to make this an election issue and I will spend plenty of my energy and time with the community down there to ensure that whoever wins that seat and whoever wins the next election is committed to the hospital.

People might think in government that this is not a vote loser for the government. Believe you me, this is a significant vote loser for the government and the government should stop and reverse the recommendation by the razor gang and say to the razor gang that they got it wrong on this occasion. If you want to save money in public health, just go to the beautiful shiny building on Hindmarsh Square that a lot of us would love to work in, that has a lot better views and a lot more quality offices than we have here in the parliament—and higher salaries. Go there because that is where the fat is. Thin that out. Don't destroy a magnificent hospital like the McLaren Vale hospital. I look forward to input from colleagues on that.

Before I turn to the second part of the motion, I want to place on record my appreciation to the board, the chair of the board, the hospital staff and to the volunteers for the great work they do at the McLaren Vale hospital and to reinforce to them that there are lots of political friends they have to back up the community. We will be there to take up the challenge shoulder to shoulder with them if the government do not open their eyes and see the importance of reinstating and committing the funding.

I turn now to the Repatriation General Hospital. I went to a rally down there recently and I am running a petition calling on this government to forget what the razor gang are talking about doing and to realise the importance of the Repatriation General Hospital on Daws Road. I declare my interest in that hospital, not only as a member of the Legislative Council, but unfortunately I spent far too many hours there in my young years watching my own father have 13 serious and major operations after World War II in that hospital. I visited Ward 17, which is still there as a first class psychiatric section of the hospital.

Back in those days when I was young, sadly, I watched the curtains being put around World War I digger after digger, time after time, when I went out there, watching them trying to survive from the gassing in the trenches and having to use the spittoons to survive during the day, then watching World War II men and women in ever increasing numbers coming in. Sadly, then, I saw it repeated with those World War II men and women dying out there and then seeing the demand from Vietnam vets, those from the Korean and Malaysian conflicts and others. We still have conflict after conflict that Australia is involved in and we still have a need for that hospital to care for people who have put their lives on the line to give us the democracy that we enjoy.

As well as being a repatriation hospital, for a long time now it has been a general hospital, and it serves a great purpose as a general hospital. In fact, over the course of the year, I think over 6,000 patients access the emergency treatment area of the Repatriation General Hospital, and that is the area they want to close. Now, where are they going to put the people who go to that emergency department? They are already ramping at the Flinders Medical Centre, as we all know, and we have seen what the ambulance service has said about that. In fact, I was pleased to meet Phil Palmer when I was at the rally. Phil Palmer heads up the Ambulance Employees Association, and I worked with Phil on a professional level when I was minister.

I respect the man for the job that he does for ambulance officers. Mr Palmer was there with representatives from the ambulance service supporting that rally because he knows (1) that the Repatriation General Hospital provides good services to the South Australian community, and (2) that if his ambulances cannot take people to the Repatriation General Hospital emergency department that he has nowhere else to take them.

The panacea that the government talks about with the RAH; that is where all the focus is and that is where all the talk is. The new RAH is going to fix everything. I see a shrinking of so many hospitals, and the government's answer is, 'Well, in about 2016 we'll have the new RAH.' The new RAH, as I am told, will not have any more overall beds than the existing RAH. Yes, it will have more day surgery beds, but as far as actual hospital beds for very ill people who cannot get in and out in a day, it will not have any more beds. In fact, if there is to be any growth in population, I do not know where those people are going to go. But, the Repat is one place where we could look at expansion.

I believe that the government has either let the Department for Health run riot, or it is supporting the Department for Health with the direction it is taking. But, if you actually go and have a close look at the Repat, apart from one ward facility in the north-eastern corner, the rest of the hospital has not even had any basic maintenance for several years. It is run-down, it is deteriorating, and I think the agenda is, 'Let's get rid of the emergency department, let's cut funding to the acute referral unit and, by stealth, let's not do anything when it comes to repairs and maintenance; then we will just have to turn around and say that this hospital campus is so run down now and so out of date when it comes to its infrastructure that we'll have to knock it down.'

It is interesting that it is diagonally just across the road from a fantastic TAFE facility which is also about to be decommissioned. They are sending that TAFE campus to the old Mitsubishi site at Tonsley. It is a prime area for urban infill and land development and, of course, the Repat hospital would also be a prime area.

I believe that the razor gang is actually saying to the government, 'Just keep shrinking the opportunities for the Repatriation General Hospital and we will be able to flog off all that land; you'll get a nice dividend for that.' Sir, rest assured that the RSL organisations, all the returned men and women from all the conflicts—some of whom were at the rally the other day—and South Australians generally will fight the government on this all the way.

The gold card was always a double-edged sword. I supported the gold card for returned men and women in principle because, particularly in the country, they should have had the right to be able to go to their local hospital for certain procedures and medical support without having to come down to Daws Road. But, the gold card was not an entree for the government to be able to actually wind back and eventually get rid of the Repatriation General Hospital.

With those few words, I again put on notice that there are a lot of people watching closely what is happening at the Repatriation General Hospital. I appeal to minister Hill to get into Hindmarsh Square, to get into the bureaucracy of the Health department, and sort them out; sort the budgets out there. Do not destroy opportunities for local regions like the McLaren Vale and Fleurieu Peninsula communities with the cuts proposed to the McLaren Vale hospital, and do not destroy the important opportunities that are provided to returned men and women and the South Australian community in general at the repatriation hospital.

There are better ways to save money and get budgets in order than the simple solution—that causes more pain and heartache to good South Australian men and women, and those doing the medical procedures and providing support for them—that the government is proposing. Let's put an end to this and let's rule out any cuts to the Repat Hospital or the McLaren Vale hospital.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.M. Gazzola.

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