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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-09-04 Daily Xml
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Royal Adelaide Hospital

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:16): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister advise of the current status of the operation of the duress system at the Royal Adelaide Hospital's mental health ward, and specifically the anticipated date on which it is expected to be fully functioning? Can the minister advise of the nature of any legal proceedings concerning the duress system and whether this is impacting on the progress of the rollout?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:17): I thank the honourable member for her question. I advise the member that there is a project team within the Central Adelaide Local Health Network that is working with Celsus, the public-private partnership, to resolve the duress alarm modifications. Significant progress has been made. We are now at the point where we have a solution agreed for an appropriate duress system within the mental health unit that will allow psychiatric intensive care beds to open. That will involve an additional software upgrade, and I am told that the time frame for the completion of that upgrade is 10 weeks.

As that further work is continuing, the 10-bed mental health ward, which was intended to open as a PICU, is opening in the interim as a general mental health acute ward. In terms of progressing that project, four of the general beds are open of the total 10 that could be available. My understanding is the rate-limiting factor in that regard is particularly the recruitment of the staff that are required to staff the facility. It is very concerning, considering that I think tomorrow is the first anniversary of the opening of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, that these matters were not addressed months, if not years ago.

My recollection—and it is only a recollection—is that the duress alarm issues were raised in 2016, so it has taken a frustratingly long time to deal with. When I was appointed minister, we weren't even at the situation where the partnership agreed that we had a problem. In that context, I acknowledge the contribution of the Chief Psychiatrist, who was able to, shall we say, communicate more clearly to the partnership why we need a sophisticated duress alarm for a mental health ward, particularly a psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU).

On the honourable member's question: are there are any legal proceedings underway that are impeding the processes? I am not aware of any legal proceedings that are afoot that would impact on the duress alarms.

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