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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-10-16 Daily Xml
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Elective Surgery

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:08): My question is directed to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister update the council on the status of patients waiting for elective surgery?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:09): I thank the honourable member for his question and his continued interest in South Australia's public health. We have seen some very disappointing behaviour from the nurses' union this past week. After standing in silence while the former Labor government closed the Repat and cut 100 beds out of South Australia's—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: I would remind the house that the former Labor government closed the Repat and cut 100 beds out of the South Australian public health system—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —and the nurses' union—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, go on.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: And the nurses' union stood in silence while that happened. The government is taking action to ease pressure on the system—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —and one of those key initiatives is to reopen the Repat as a health precinct.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I cannot hear the minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: First, we have undertaken community consultation to reactivate the Repat—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —as a genuine—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I cannot hear the minister.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Stay there. Are we finished? I would like to hear the minister's answer. Minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In relation to reactivating the Repat we have undertaken community consultation with the goal of delivering a genuine health precinct. This opportunity would not have been possible if members opposite were still in government. They broke their promise; they closed the Repat and they signed a contract for its sale, and the ANMF had nothing to say. Now the ANMF is threatening to cancel elective surgery on Thursday. This is incredibly disappointing. Some of these patients have been waiting for years while the elective surgery waiting lists ballooned out under Labor, increasing tenfold last year. Their wellbeing should not be used—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I cannot hear the minister.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Their wellbeing should not be used by the ANMF as a political football. This has caused anxiety and uncertainty for patients and nurses. On the weekend, the South Australian Employment Tribunal agreed that the actions planned by the ANMF posed a risk to patients. SA Health, in the interests of patient safety, agreed to the ANMF advising their members to follow the SA Health elective surgery policy. This document does not allow elective surgery to be cancelled for industrial action.

Today, the executive directors of nursing and midwifery for each of the South Australian hospital networks joined to reassure patients that no elective surgery will be cancelled. Patients should continue to prepare for their elective surgeries as normal unless specifically contacted by the hospital. SA Health's Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer, Jenny Hurley, has made it clear that patients' wellbeing is the priority, not the agenda of the ANMF.

The Marshall Liberal government was elected to clean up Labor's mess. A part of that mess was Transforming Health which left the state's public health system broken. The government put forward a clear plan to deliver better health services, the people of South Australia voted for that plan and we will deliver on our commitments to them. We will not have our plan dictated by the ANMF.

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