Graham: Do you remember the South Australian Government spending something like $23m to upgrade helipads across South Australia? 13 of the helipads were earmarked for upgrades so that people who need that urgent medical treatment can be airlifted quickly from regional areas to major hospitals. We recently spoke, and you heard it on this program, about the design issues like, for example, the height of the fences around some of the helipads that had to be adjusted to make them operational. The Government also said that some pathways from the helipads to the hospitals would be improved under that funding, they were also going to improve the lighting beacons, navigation equipment in some of the areas, safety zones were going to be widened to better protect patients and staff when the helipads are in use. 

Well, there is some concern that despite the money that’s been spent that the Mannum and Murray Bridge helipads aren’t being used. The local member can explain, Adrian Pederick is the South Australian Liberal Member for the Seat of Hammond … good afternoon … so, what are the worries that you have about these helipads?

Well, my concern is despite these helipads being completed in April and the Government have admitted that they’re completed, that they haven’t been signed off for use. Now, this creates an outrageous situation, it’s an outrageous life-risking situation, and we’ve been very fortunate that we haven’t seen a life lost. I’ve had two cases that I’ve heard about where someone had to be stabilised 14 hours before they could go in a vehicle because they would’ve been much easier transported on the helicopter. I know of one instance where a baby was taken by road ambulance to Adelaide and that was very touch and go. The situation for me is yes there has been some significant funding spent on the helipads here at Mannum and Murray Bridge, but we haven’t seen a helicopter fly in here for nearly 12 months, since September last year. And it is just not right for the thousands of people, the tens of thousands of people that live in the Murraylands and the Mallee who need this vital service, and the people travelling through the area. We obviously have car accidents occasionally, and this is a lifesaving service.

Graham: To your knowledge … is the work complete on those helipads?

Absolutely, those 2 helipads are absolutely ready to go.

Graham: But they haven’t been signed off for use? Why have they not been signed off? When you ask the Government, what do they say?

Well, they just don’t know, they have got no concept … no idea of when these helipads will be signed off. It is a completely outrageous proposal in my mind, I’m used to seeing and hearing a helicopter coming virtually every day into Murray Bridge, where my office is, and I’m just so concerned that we’re going to have a poor outcome, including potential fatalities, because this service isn’t in place. Why hasn’t the Minister got the power to negotiate whatever the problem is? And if it’s a contractual dispute, he needs to sort it out with the new operator that’s coming on board soon to operate these helipads, but everything I’ve seen – and Health have admitted this – these 2 helipads are ready to go. Now, I take my hat off to the MedSTAR pilots, the MedSTAR nurses and doctors that fly out here, and I’ve seen them land next to rolled cars on highways and out in paddocks and they can land these lifesaving helicopters anywhere. So, I am totally concerned that for whatever reason the Minister for Health isn’t utilising purpose built helipads for the purpose of literally saving lives, and what it also does is tie up valuable fleets of road ambulances

So, are these completely new helipads?

No, they’ve both been upgraded 

Graham: [talking over] So, it’s the same ones that they were using. Have patient transfers been interrupted as a result of this? I know you’ve given a few examples.

Absolutely patient transfers have been affected, people have had to be stabilised, I’ve talked to local doctors that are concerned about the outcomes, not just on the patients that are being stabilised, but the simple fact is it ties up road ambulances and we have enough problems with 5,000 ramping events in the city recently in the last month recorded. We need this vital lifesaving service operating in the Murraylands, and for the life of me I cannot work out what’s going on, and the sad thing is the Minister can’t work out when these 2 helipads will be signed off for use because they are ready to go.

Graham: Ok, so we’ve reached out to SA Health, and they’ve sent us this statement from the Chief Executive Officer Wayne Champion, who is the Chief Executive of the Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network, it says,

“construction of the new helipads at Murray Bridge Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital and Mannum District Hospital have been finalised … we are currently waiting for the helicopter operator to sign off on the helipads, in the meantime, the helicopter operator is using Murray Bridge Airfield and Mannum Oval as alternative landing sites for air medical retrievals.”

So, from what you’re saying Adrian Pederick, is that not happening? They’re not using the Mannum Oval and the Murray Bridge Airfield to transport people via helicopter?

Well, my understanding is the default position of the oval, and the Pallamana Airfield aren’t being utilised anywhere near as much as what we used to see with a helicopter retrieval virtually every day in Murray Bridge, and some people have said Pallamana is rarely used, I’m aware of a couple of incidents where Mannum Oval is used. The stupid thing about this is we have purpose built helipads that are literally ready to go, we have a Health Minister that is in charge of the biggest department in South Australia and Chris Picton should be coming on the radio and explaining to the good people of rural South Australia, and especially here in Murray Bridge and Mannum why he hasn’t managed to sort out a contract to sign off these helipads. Because they are not utilising the alternative strips as much as they were using the helipads because I know that they’re using land based ambulances all the time to fill in for this retrieval process. It is just not on, and I’d really like to know what Minister Picton and Premier Malinauskas are doing in this space because this could literally cost lives.

Graham: To your knowledge, when you speak to your other Liberal colleagues in other regional seats, and there are quite a few of them, I’m thinking of the Seat of Chaffey with Tim Whetstone and other areas where there are Liberal incumbents, because the helipad upgrades have been done at Balaklava, Clare, Kangaroo Island, Kapunda, Loxton, Mannum, Meningie, Murray Bridge, Port Broughton, Port Pirie, Riverland General, Southern Fleurieu, and also Wallaroo, are any of those other areas to your knowledge also experiencing a delay in having their helipads signed off for use?

Absolutely, my understanding Clare certainly hasn’t opened up, I know that Meningie, well out of those that you just mentioned, out of the 13 that have been upgraded, there’s only 4 that I’m aware of that have been opened. That’s at Kingscote on … Kangaroo Island, Meningie, Wallaroo, and Balaklava … the new contract is worth $870m, I mean if the Minister’s got the wherewithal to sign off some of these helipads, what about the rest of these vital, lifesaving work? Not just in my community, but right across regional South Australia. It just doesn’t add up, specifically because it’s been almost 12 months since we’ve had an air retrieval out of the helipad at Murray Bridge Emergency Department.

Graham: Adrian Pederick, thank you …