MILLICENT’S peak health advocacy group has raised concerns about the lack of response from South Australian Health Minister Peter Malinauskas on the regional health inquiry ahead of the state election.
With parliament about to enter caretaker mode, the Millicent and Surrounds Health Support Group has expressed concern over Mr Malinauskas not addressing the social development committee’s report as required.
Headed by Labor MLC Gail Gago, the South Australian Parliament Social Development Committee heard evidence in Millicent in September 2016 as part of its statewide investigation into regional health services.
In August 2017, the resulting report was laid on the table of the Legislative Council and contained 49 recommendations for consideration by the minister.
According to the committee’s 2017 general information booklet, the minister is required to respond to the committee within four months of the report being tabled.
In a statement, the support group said the ministerial response must address all recommendations and state what, if any, actions would be undertaken.
“As community representatives, if the full response was not available during the last sitting of parliament 2017 we would have expected an interim response from the health minister,” the statement said.
“We have confirmed the social development committee has not received any response from the minister at this point.
“It would be an appalling indictment of our state’s political processes if the time, effort and resources put into the inquiry led to no measurable improvement in the delivery of health outcomes to our regional and remote communities.”
Mr Malinauskas said the State Governement would continue to pursue the implementation of all recommendations.
“Of the 49 recommendations, 23 were already implemented or under way before the tabling of the document,” he said.
“Other recommendations are still receiving consideration from SA Health.”
When asked if a response would be complete ahead of the next parliament sitting, a State Government spokesperson said “we head into caretaker in a few weeks, which will prohibit our ability to make any ministerial decisions, so derive from that what you will”.
