Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a community member, a newspaper columnist, a candidate and the member for Boothby, I fought to save the Repat hospital. Last week, I joined my state colleagues the member for Elder, Carolyn Habib, the member for Waite, Sam Duluk, and the health minister, Stephen Wade, and City of Mitcham Mayor Glenn Spear at the Reviving the Repat community meeting to share the fantastic news about health services returning to the Repat precinct.

The Repatriation General Hospital, better known to locals as the Repat, is located in my electorate of Boothby and was a historic health hub dedicated to the care of returned servicemen and servicewomen and their widows for more than 70 years. It was also a wonderful community hospital for residents in my electorate—that is, until the former Labor government announced in 2015 that it would close the Repat as part of its disastrous Transforming Health strategy. This was a terrible blow to the community, reducing access to health services for residents in southern Adelaide and, in particular, reducing access to vital therapy services for our veterans.

I'm delighted that, under Premier Steven Marshall and the South Australian Liberal government, the Repat hospital site will be restored as a health precinct by the end of the month, with the reopening of the hydrotherapy pool. Health Minister Stephen Wade is also commencing community consultation to bring more health services back to the site. I congratulate Premier Marshall, Minister Wade, Carolyn Habib and Sam Duluk for their commitment to the Repat site and thank everyone in the community, including Dr Warren Jones, who supported our efforts to revive the Repat.