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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-13 Daily Xml
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Flinders Medical Centre

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (14:33): Supplementary question on that: is the government's Southern Health Expansion Plan consultation plan document correct that there will be a closure of 30 existing beds to make way for the expanded emergency department there?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:34): I would hardly see that as a supplementary. If we want to talk about history, let's talk about history.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: If we want to talk about history, the consultation document—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —that the honourable member referred to was a consultation document—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Sit down, minister. We are going to have a very productive question time today, but we will not have it if the members of the opposition and others on my right are shouting over the top of the minister. The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: As I said, the southern hospital extension program—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! As I said before, you wouldn't want to dip too far into your own memory. The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: What the southern hospital extension program—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! If you don't want the answer, we will move on to the next question. Minister, continue.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The southern hospital expansion program—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Sorry, can I go beyond three words?

The PRESIDENT: Please.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The southern hospital expansion program involves $86 million across three hospitals, with a net increase of 24 beds. At Flinders there is approximately the same number of treatment bays and beds.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In the emergency department, there is a 30 treatment bay expansion, which is in the order of a 50 per cent increase. I was delighted to go down to the Flinders Medical Centre today and see—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The opposition is on notice that they will lose the next question if this doesn't stop.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In terms of the southern hospital expansion program, there is, I am advised, the same number of beds at Flinders Medical Centre, but what has happened is that we have decanted services from Flinders Medical Centre to Noarlunga and from Noarlunga to the Repat so that across those three hospitals there is a net increase of 24 beds.

But that's not the end of it. At the hospital that they tried to close, the Repat, not only do we have the SHEP expansion, we have also got the 18-bed Neuro-Behavioural Unit go in at that facility. We have already got the SADU facility operating. Yesterday, I was delighted to visit the Bangka Strait Ward, which is the old Ward 1 and Ward 2, where there is—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order, sir.

The PRESIDENT: There is a point of order. The minister will resume his seat.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The supplementary was specifically about the cutting of beds by this minister. It's not even close or tangential to the question.

The PRESIDENT: The supplementary was about the southern region of health.

The Hon. K.J. Maher: It wasn't.

The PRESIDENT: Yes, it was. The minister will continue.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The honourable member might remember when this government came to power, how many beds were there at the Repat? Zero. The former government closed the Repat. That's in the southern—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order, sir.

The PRESIDENT: There is a point of order. Resume your seat, minister.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: If the minister's previous answer was straying, this is nowhere near the question, sir. It's completely irrelevant.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Other frontbench members are not helping, Minister for Human Services. I am sure the minister is going to bring his answer to a conclusion soon, but he is answering it within the realms of the question that was asked originally, which was all about the southern region of health.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: This government is delivering an expansion of beds in the southern region—a net increase of 24 beds in SHEP alone and then at the Repat you have got the Neuro-Behavioural Unit, the Bangka Strait Ward, the HammondCare facility. This is a party that should be ashamed of having closed the Repat.

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