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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-03-19 Daily Xml
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Health Services

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (16:04): My question is directed to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister update the council on the government's achievements in health and wellbeing over the last 12 months?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (16:04): I thank the honourable member for his question. This past Sunday marked one year since the election of the Marshall Liberal government. I must admit I need to wait until Friday to celebrate one year since I took my commission.

There was a raft of reasons why the people of South Australia decided to back the Marshall Liberal team's vision for this state, and many of them were the result of the incompetence and arrogance of the previous Labor government. That incompetence and arrogance was particularly evident in the area of health. Under Labor's Transforming Health experiment, Labor broke its promise to never ever close the Repat. They did close it and they cut more than 100 beds from the system.

Labor built a hospital that costs $640 million more than budgeted and which was designed without genuine clinical engagement, putting more stress on the system rather than relieving stress. Labor cut services at Modbury, The QEH and Noarlunga Hospital. They promised upgrades at The QEH and did not deliver them, putting the money instead into Transforming Health.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I cannot hear the minister. Minister.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The Marshall Liberal government said quite openly that this sort of damage cannot be undone in a month or year, but we are committed to fixing the mess and we are delivering in every area which Transforming Health impacted. We committed to reactivate the Repat and we are doing that right now with the hydrotherapy pool open, radiology services and care transition beds operating on the site that Labor was going to sell off for apartments. We consulted with the community who endorsed our master plan to develop the site as a genuine health precinct.

We are committed to restoring services at hospitals downgraded by Labor. We have already delivered 24/7 cardiac services to The QEH and are upgrading the cardiac cath lab. Working with the Morrison Liberal government we have won a full MRI licence for The QEH, delivering more medical imaging services to Adelaide's west. We have returned multiday surgery to Modbury Hospital. We have established a clinical working group to deliver the HDU at Modbury Hospital and have committed the funds needed. We are committed to the $96 million upgrade of Modbury Hospital and planning work is underway. We are working to deliver a 12-bed acute care unit at Noarlunga Hospital after committing funds for that in the 2018-19 budget.

After Labor allowed a succession of budget overspends in CALHN to reach $300 million, the Marshall Liberal government has drawn a line in the sand. We have appointed KordaMentha, who turned around the Whyalla steelworks, to fix what they called the most broken organisation they had ever seen.

We paused the rollout of Labor's botched EPAS program which had already spent more than $300 million but reached less than 30 per cent of beds. We appointed an independent review and we have taken on board their recommendations as we move to implement the electronic medical records in the RAH and Mount Gambier. We have engaged clinicians to ensure that the system supports them in their work.

In conclusion, I want to acknowledge the stellar work of the member who asked the question. The Hon. John Dawkins was appointed the Premier's Advocate for Suicide Prevention last year and has ably led the Premier's Council on Suicide Prevention. In that role, he has continued his long-term commitment to the area. He has particularly enhanced the comprehensive network of suicide prevention networks across South Australia and will continue to form more SPNs across the next two years. I would also like to acknowledge the work that he is doing within the Public Service in concert with the member for Waite in the other place, to take the opportunity to raise suicide prevention as an issue right across the Public Service.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Are you all finished? The Hon. Mr Pangallo.

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