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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-04-03 Daily Xml
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Rural Doctors Association

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (15:54): The current status of the rural GP workforce is the worst it has ever been. These are not my words, they are the words of the president of the Rural Doctors Association. Mr Acting President, you, the Hon. Dennis Hood and the Hon. Connie Bonaros—we are a small handful of the many threads that are woven together to make the South Australian tapestry, but do we give the same value to each of these threads, to every South Australian? Last week, when flying to Kangaroo Island for the GM crop committee and then when driving to Kadina over the weekend, it was hard not to think how we, as upper house members, are able to provide the services needed to support our vast and diverse state.

As I have mentioned previously in this chamber, I grew up in regional South Australia on the Yorke Peninsula where my family still runs a farm and a successful agricultural engineering business. I do not live in a fantasy world where I am going to argue that regional health services will be comparable to the emergency services available to our state-of-the-art metropolitan hospitals, and I am not going to argue that Labor got it right every time.

What I will argue is that if you start removing the basics like SA Pathology you will start stripping the threads of a community one by one. We need to attract and keep people in regional South Australia and not discourage professionals, families and teachers from moving into our regional communities by removing basic services like SA Pathology. Not only are they basic, they are life-saving procedures. Given that 30 per cent of South Australians live in rural South Australia it is important that we have a viable rural health service and viable workforce.

We know that health outcomes in our rural communities are poor compared to their metropolitan cousins. Many in this chamber—like the Hon. John Dawkins—understand that regional communities are built on the strength of those individuals who will do anything for their community. However, you need the basic services to keep people there, services like schools, hospitals, sports clubs and one or two pubs.

When the Ernst and Young SA Pathology report was made available to the then state minister Jack Snelling to explore opportunities to contest regional SA Pathology services he was quick to rule out the adoption of that recommendation. Why? Because minister Snelling listened to the feedback from rural communities and the pathology industry.

I have spoken in this place before about the Liberal government's catchy #RegionsMatter. As recently as today, when I have been chatting to rural communities about health, SA Pathology has been a hot topic of conversation in regional communities. They are feeling like they do not matter. We know that SA Pathology has been providing very important services in many rural communities. They provide some emergency blood products, including blood transfusions. Regional communities know that this is very important, considering the number of road fatalities and accidents that happen in regional communities. Without the support of SA Pathology being an on-site service many lives would be at risk because of the quick turnaround that is required in those circumstances.

Communities are concerned that their GPs will no longer have a good working relationship with SA Pathology clinicians if SA Pathology is privatised. If their tests are required to go interstate there will be a delay in response and also treatment. Those opposite might scoff when members on this side of the parliament talk about regional SA. It is the actions of a government not the hashtags that are relevant and that matter.

It does not stop at SA Pathology; it continues on to services available through our regional hospitals as well. We heard today about the Keith hospital. Why would it be up to a community to organise a GoFundMe page to keep a service available in that community? It is another broken promise by the Marshall Liberal government.

When the Hon. Rob Lucas was shadow minister for health and wellbeing, in 2013 he stated that the Liberal Party supported the Keith community in its campaign to keep the hospital open and it will continue to do so.

Time expired.

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