More than 10,000 Mid-North residents sign petition demanding change for under-fire Port Pirie Hospital

A petition demanding upgrades and changes to a regional hospital has triggered a massive response, with one MP calling it “momentous”.

More than 10,000 people have signed a petition demanding changes at Port Pirie Hospital. Picture Dean Martin

More than 10,000 Mid-North residents are demanding an overhaul of the way embattled Port Pirie Hospital is managed, amid calls for better healthcare for regional communities.

An official inquiry into substandard health services on the Yorke Peninsula, Port Pirie and surrounding areas will now be triggered after one of the biggest petitions of its kind was tabled in state parliament this month.

The petition, which collected 10,688 signatures, argues country residents should not be ignored, are “deserving of quality healthcare services” irrespective of postcode and require a special “minister for regional health” in state cabinet.

Locals have demanded the under-fire Port Pirie Hospital – already under internal investigation over alleged poor mortuary services – be moved out of the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network.

Moving operations to the neighbouring Flinders and Upper North network will allow for “improved resource allocation for all hospitals” within the Narungga electorate, it claims.

Residents also request an “urgent” upgrade of Wallaroo Hospital “to a level befitting its status as the major” health facility to better serve towns such as Ardrossan, Kadina, Maitland, Moonta and Port Wakefield.

Funding for rural health and public hospitals should be determined by size and current population needs and not historical statistics, it states.

Port Pirie is already under internal investigation. Picture Dean Martin

Independent MP for Narungga Fraser Ellis said it was a “momentous development” as a petition of that size was “extremely rare” and from the one electorate “extraordinary”.

Flooding within Port Pirie Hospital in April 2023. Picture: SA Health

“It’s a clear demonstration of long-held, increasing community concern about the state of regional health system,” he said.

“Whilst ambulance ramping at city hospitals is crucially alarming, the rural health system is also in crisis and, we in the country, are tired of being treated as second-tier citizens.”

Wallaroo Hospital needed a major upgrade as it was tiny, compared with its catchment area and “very much outdated”, he said.

Moving Port Pirie Hospital’s management would “focus their attention” on Wallaroo and other Yorke Peninsula facilities, he said.

Health Minister Chris Picton rejected the calls to change the Local Health Network boundaries as there were “no plans” to abolish areas established under the former Liberal government.

He said the local network’s budget had been boosted more than $28m a year, 13 more paramedics had been hired for around-the-clock coverage, nurse graduates would double to 48 positions and a new rehabilitation service launched.

“This government takes seriously the need to invest in regional health including the Yorke Peninsula,” he said.

Yorke and Northern Local Health Network chief executive officer Roger Kirchner said authorities “know people in rural areas … can experience difficulties accessing the healthcare they need”.