Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have previously spoken in this place about the Blackwood community hospital. The Blackwood community hospital was established in 1954. It was part of the community hospital movement in South Australia that was sponsored by Premier Tom Playford, where the community would help raise money for a hospital and have some co-sponsorship from the state government. Blackwood community hospital had been part of the community I represent since 1954. In October 2010 the Blackwood community hospital went into administration and was forced to close its doors on 24 December 2010.

Through the liquidators, the Blackwood community hospital now has new owners—the International Musculoskeletal Research Institute. The IMRI has reopened an after-hours GP clinic on site, but last month with the shadow minister for health, the member for Dickson, I was able to announce that a coalition government would provide $500,000 towards reconfiguring the hospital to allow more services to be offered in a community setting.

This would achieve several things. Firstly, it would help take pressure off the outpatients of public hospitals in my electorate, such as the Flinders Medical Centre and the Repatriation General Hospital. Secondly, it will provide a health use for this site. The reopening of the after-hours GP clinic is to be welcomed, but this is a big site and it does have the potential to offer a lot more services. Thirdly, as we see more people training as medical students and nursing students, we will need to have more training not just in the teaching hospital setting, as has been traditional, but in a community setting. This proposal at a local level will help facilitate that. I call on the government to match our commitment. This is very important for the community I represent and will allow a greater choice of health services in the area. I call on the government to match that commitment.