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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-09-26 Daily Xml
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Royal Adelaide Hospital

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:58): My question is directed to the Minister for Health about the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Can the minister advise whether all patient safety issues that have arisen with the transfer of the Royal Adelaide Hospital have been resolved, in particular the dozen safety issues in relation to the operating theatres raised by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation in a letter to the Central Adelaide Local Health Network on Friday 15 September? Specifically, what action has been taken and what issues have been resolved?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (14:59): I thank the honourable member for her question. First and foremost, when we contemplate the NRAH, this is, I think, the first sitting week that we have had since the transition of the NRAH, and provides me with an opportunity to acknowledge just how well the transition from the ORAH to the NRAH has gone.

As was stated before the move, this is probably the single biggest logistical undertaking that has ever occurred in the state's history. The complexity of moving from one hospital, especially a key hospital, to another, like what occurred a couple of weeks ago, the complexity that underpins that is just mind-boggling.

Since I have been lucky enough to have this job, there have been a few references to it that have been made. Naturally, our focus is on what we are doing going forward, but understanding or having an appreciation now of how much is provided for in these huge institutions and facilities, one can only imagine how hard the move was. I have moved house before in my life. It's the worst job in the world, and that is just moving some basic personal goods. One can't begin to fathom how extraordinarily difficult this move was, and it was done incredibly successfully.

A lot of thought, a lot of planning, planning over years, was put into making sure it was done smoothly. It was an extraordinary effort on behalf of all concerned from the highest levels of the health department, from my predecessor, right down to all the people who were doing the work on the ground. It was an outstanding effort that is worthy of recognition.

Of course, now that we are in the NRAH and it is operating, there are issues that have been presenting themselves, particularly in those early stages. I just want to commend the ANMF for putting those things out on the record; that is their job. I said earlier that I don't believe that organisations like the ANMF can be characterised as only caring about their members. I do actually think that our nurses who work within our system do have a genuine concern and care for patient outcomes as well, so they are right to raise issues that are being realised, and they are an important source of information that I am sure I will have to rely on regularly when it comes to decisions in and around health.

I will just enlighten the chamber by referencing the fact that I am looking forward to a meeting that I've got scheduled tomorrow with the ANMF. Naturally, last week, because at one point industrial action was on the cards, I obviously did speak directly to the CEO/secretary of the ANMF. Ms Dabars I think is a good South Australian who has led her organisation for a number of years. I was happy to speak to her last week.

By and large, my advice is that most of the issues that the ANMF raised have been addressed, or an action plan has been put in place that has satisfied the ANMF that industrial action hasn't been necessary up until this point. That is a good thing. That has taken a large amount of work from people working at the NRAH but also executives within CALHN. I want to see our industrial organisations working collaboratively.

There was, like I said, a threat of industrial action on the cards. This is not the sort of news a new health minister wants to hear, but I was also very happy to hear that that was no longer necessary and many of the issues have been addressed. I look forward to hearing from the ANMF in my meeting tomorrow and, I am sure, in what will be a large number of discussions over the coming weeks and months about making sure there are a great number of issues that continue to be addressed.

The NRAH is a huge undertaking. We are still just getting a sense of how the facility will operate in practice. There will be plans that will need to evolve. There will be systems that need to change. There will be things that need to improve. I guess my job as a minister is to make sure that's exactly what is happening. I think it would be naive to suggest that somehow all the problems are fixed and there will be no more that are presented again. There will be teething issues, and they will continue to present themselves.

My job as the minister is to make sure that there are systems in place, and that there are good people running those systems that ensure that there is a feedback loop, that there are accountabilities in place, that we have systems in place to make sure that when issues present that can be addressed, they are addressed as quickly as possible so that the men and women, our patients who attend the NRAH and see this extraordinary world-class facility—it is truly a world-class facility—can go into it knowing the people who are working there don't just have a great facility, don't just have outstanding staff working there, but have systems in place to ensure that that facility is being used to its full potential, which of course is utterly extraordinary.

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