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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-12-03 Daily Xml
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SA Health

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:03): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question about SA Health.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: It is no secret that SA Health is terminally ill, and today's damning report by the ICAC commissioner, Bruce Lander, is the latest scathing indictment of one of the state's largest and critical departments. My question to the minister is: why does this government continue to so vehemently oppose a royal commission into SA Health's public services when the dire warning signs are there for absolutely everybody to see?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:03): This house has, if you like, a binary challenge before it. On the one hand I am being told I should give money to the ICAC commissioner for an ICAC inquiry. On the other hand, I am being told I need a royal commission. What this government is committed to is acting on the issues that have been highlighted by the ICAC commissioner. And that is clear; that is demonstrated by the fact that we have already acted.

Let me illustrate some of them: in relation to KordaMentha, KordaMentha was actually appointed in the Central Adelaide Local Health Network in the context of the commissioner's concern. That engagement is an $18 million investment in dealing with maladministration. As has been highlighted, the recovery plan is an important step to improve the culture and the financial management of that network. For example, the ICAC commissioner has concerns about record management. KordaMentha also highlighted the problem with poor record keeping in the area of medical coding and indicated a multimillion dollar loss, potentially, in annual revenue.

KordaMentha is addressing a number of the concerns of the commissioner, and one of their priorities in their recovery plan is to actually deal with culture and governance. On the issue of governance, the government is of the view that devolution of health administration to local boards—which only started on 1 July—will be a major step forward in terms of improving governance at the local level.

I cannot comprehend how Labor honestly felt that centralising health care in Hindmarsh Square was actually going to improve governance—it hasn't. Under 40,000 staff—my understanding, about 30,000 FTEs—spread across one of the most geographically diverse states in the nation, and expecting that to be effectively managed from an ivory tower by bureaucrats was never going to work. I fundamentally believe that the introduction of local health network management, backed up by boards, which are staffed by people independent of SA Health, providing governance, connecting with their communities, connecting with their clinicians, will lead to much better outcomes on a range of domains, particularly the ones that are highlighted in the ICAC commissioner's analysis.

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