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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-28 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): Final supplementary: has the minister sought or received any health advice from the Chief Public Health Officer or any other source about entry and egress into hospitals, particularly whether dedicated lifts should be instituted?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:35): Not that I recall. I do recall a conversation, where I suspect the Chief Public Health Officer was present, where there were discussions about what measures might be taken to screen visitors, and again I can testify to being a victim of two sets of screening in the last two days: when I visited the Royal Adelaide Hospital I was duly questioned as to whether I had been overseas in the last 14 days, whether I had been interstate in the last 14 days (that would have been a blessing), whether I have a temperature, and so forth; and, again, at Lyell McEwin there was hospital entry screening. I am certainly aware of having been a part of discussions about, if you like, practices in terms of visits.

But even in the context of that discussion, it was acknowledged that this was a matter for local health network management. Sure, the local health network management and people from right across SA Health, the private hospital network and the community, regularly seek advice from the public health clinicians, but the outstanding response in our local hospitals to COVID-19 is primarily attributable to the first-class teams that we have running our networks.

As an example, let me reference the Marion Holiday Park, a facility which, of course, is underutilised in times of state border and international border controls. It has the capacity to accommodate hundreds of people in a diverse range of household configurations, allowing people to both self-isolate by either separating themselves from family, if their living circumstances at home are not possible, but also to receive comfortable accommodation while they are receiving medical supervision from doctors and nurses. I think that is a great example of the innovation we are seeing delivered by SA Health. We are effectively getting additional medical care bed capacity in a very scalable, very affordable way. I will not waste an opportunity to praise the outstanding work being delivered by SA Health.

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