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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-02 Daily Xml
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SA Health

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister explain how SA Health has innovated to respond to COVID-19?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:51): Yes, the opposition laughs. The opposition thinks that SA Health is not responding well to COVID-19, that it's not innovating. Well, let me tell you—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —SA Health is responding well—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —and SA Health is innovating, and let me tell you about it.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: On Friday 12 February—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister will be heard in silence.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: On Friday 12 February, the annual SA Health Awards took place at the Adelaide Town Hall. The ceremony was an opportunity to celebrate and highlight the work of staff from across the organisation, many of whom play key roles in keeping South Australians safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the awards ceremony was postponed from November last year as the SA Health team swung into action to deal with the Parafield cluster.

The pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for those who work in the health system. In successfully responding to the urgent COVID-19 crisis while continuing to manage their business-as-usual responsibilities, SA Health showed South Australia how committed it is to delivering exceptional health care.

The awards were presented over 10 categories, but in the context of the ongoing pandemic I want to particularly mention the winner of the Premier's Award for Excellence in Health, which went to the virology, serology and molecular team in SA Pathology. If I could digress slightly, it was an absolute privilege to be present when the Premier joined us for the SA Health Awards, and he personally gave the Premier's Award for Excellence in Health to the VSM team.

As an organisation, SA Pathology has been one of the heroes of South Australia's response to the pandemic. In fact, a few weeks ago we celebrated the landmark that we as a community had had over one million COVID-19 tests here in South Australia, overwhelmingly done by SA Pathology. This is a testament to the community and also to the dedicated staff who processed the majority of those tests.

I was particularly impressed by the speech given by Dr Geoff Higgins in accepting the award on behalf of his team. Dr Higgins explained that for SA Pathology this pandemic did not start last year. In 2005, SA Pathology was planning for a pandemic. At that stage, they thought it would be an avian influenza outbreak. In 2009, they responded to swine flu, and then in 2020 came COVID.

Putting the response into perspective, he noted that in 2009 the VSM team were processing 100 specimens per day. In the COVID-19 pandemic, this increased to an average of 5,000 per day, with peaks of 13,000 per day, more than double the usual patient episodes that SA Pathology would handle daily across the state. That ramp-up was only possible because of the assays that SA Pathology could make and assemble and equipment that Mark Turra and other scientists designed for this eventuality.

It is also pleasing to note that in December 2020 SA Pathology was one of five Australian health services to receive special recognition by the International Hospital Federation Beyond the Call of Duty for COVID-19 Response Recognition Program. In 2020, unique teams across SA Health came together, medi-hotels were established, testing clinics were set up across the state, additional PPE was secured and manufactured, and contact tracers were employed and trained to support the CDCB.

Our frontline staff have worked tirelessly to test and treat suspected and positive COVID-19 patients, some even volunteering to help our colleagues interstate. ICU staff played a vital role caring for a number of critically ill COVID patients. Tragically, four lives have been lost to the disease. I would like to thank all the extraordinary staff who have worked tirelessly to support the health and wellbeing of South Australians through a difficult and challenging year. To all of the award winners and finalists at the SA Health awards, I congratulate them on their innovation and hard work and look forward to their ongoing contribution to the state.

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