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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-03-20 Daily Xml
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Elective Surgery

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:40): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding elective surgery waiting times.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.T. NGO: Two days after the election the Premier said on ABC radio, 'We're going to activate the theatres there as quickly as possible to chew through this unacceptable large elective surgery backlog.' Today, the SA Health elective surgery dashboard shows that the elective surgery waiting list stands at 17,957. This is up by more than 1,100 people from this time last year. The question is: does the minister support the comments made by the Premier then, and will the minister apologise for failing to deliver on this promise to reduce elective surgery waiting times?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:41): I thank the honourable member for his question. I am used to Dorothys from the Labor opposition, but a double-header Dorothy is quite stunning. Not only am I being asked to comment about the reactivation of the operating theatres at the Repat, the hospital that Labor promised never, ever to close, but I am being invited to reflect on Labor's performance on elective surgery waiting times as well. So today the honourable member talked about—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Allow the minister to respond. Minister.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: All he ever does is talk about the past government—he never talks about his own responsibilities.

The PRESIDENT: We've heard you, the Hon. Mr Hunter. We heard you yesterday. Allow the minister to respond.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: No, he won't.

The PRESIDENT: He can't, the Hon. Mr Hunter, because you're shouting.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Indeed, I can't. The former minister, who has now been promoted to the position of Opposition Whip, apparently doesn't like hearing other people answer ministerial questions. Well, get used to it because it is going to happen for at least the next four years, and I hope you enjoy every single one of them.

Let me return to what this government is doing to clean up Labor's mess. The Hon. Tung Ngo is taunting me to talk about the Repat, so let me do that. The Repat, to which the honourable member's question refers—the Premier was talking about our determination to reactivate the Repat site. The former Labor government closed the Repat Hospital, the hospital they said they would never, ever close. The significance of that, in particular in relation to elective surgery waiting lists, is that orthopaedic surgery and neurological surgery are the two areas where we have the highest numbers of overdue—it is an overdue hotspot.

What did the Repat do? The Repatriation General Hospital supplied 25 per cent of metropolitan Adelaide's neurological and orthopaedic surgery before the Labor Party broke its promise to never, ever close the Repat, and then closed it in November 2017. What we said was that we would reactivate the Repat. So I was delighted this morning to be at the reactivating of the Repat market presentation about the surgical precinct, where a range of providers were briefed on the opportunities on the Repat site. The former Labor government trashed the Repat site; very valuable assets are being reactivated there—not just the brain and spinal precinct, not just the dementia and mental health precinct—but today we had another milestone in the government's program to reactivate the Repat.

In terms of elective surgery—that's the other Dorothy the honourable member gave me, and I thank him for it; it was in relation to elective surgery—let's compare what the former Labor government did in the 12 months up to the last election. They managed from March to March to increase the overdue elective surgery waiting list—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order, Mr President.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Sorry, this is directly on the question.

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, point of order.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The relevance of the question asked about the minister's failings and the length of time to respond, and I do appreciate, Mr President, your wise counsel when people have gone on for more than five minutes in the recent past.

The PRESIDENT: Well, he has not gone on for more than five minutes, because I have been watching the time. Secondly, the minister has some latitude, and he is within the boundaries of relevance. The question was very broad.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I am almost offended. I am talking about the Repat and elective surgery; that is what the questions were, and the honourable member gave me the opportunity—

The PRESIDENT: There is no need to respond to the point of order. The point of order has been answered.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The former government—

The PRESIDENT: Clerk, turn the dial. Right. Let's go.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The former government, in the last year before the election, saw a 300 per cent increase in overdue elective surgery. Since the election we have managed to stabilise that growth, and elective surgery overdues has increased by 9 per cent. Since August—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —the overdue colonoscopies have actually—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: I cannot hear the minister. I cannot hear the minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Well, if you controlled the house, we would be able to hear it.

The PRESIDENT: Well. The Hon. Ms Lee.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Unfortunately, The Hon. Mr Ngo, I couldn't hear your supplementary. Remonstrate with your own leader.

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