Elderly patient denied pillow, no confidence motion against Health Minister Chris Picton over ambulance ramping crisis

An urgent pillow audit has been ordered after an elderly patient had to go without in a suburban emergency department this week.

A fiery day in SA politics has ended in a pillow fight, after the state’s health minister faced a no-confidence motion, followed up by claims the state’s hospitals had run short on bedding.
The state government has ordered an urgent pillow audit after an elderly patient was denied one at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital this week, revealed in an Opposition press conference on Thursday.

Teresa Sandona said she took her 93-year-old father to the emergency department after several falls, but there were no free chairs or pillows available.

“The whole thing for me was really upsetting because we dehumanised ourselves,” she said.

Opposition Leader David Speirs said the situation was not acceptable.

“This is extremely concerning, and again goes to the heart of the health crisis,” he said.

However, Health Minister Chris Picton said there were plenty of supplies, but added he would demand answers from hospital CEOs and boards about what will be done to improve supply and availability.

Opposition MP David Speirs. Picture Emma Brasier

He ordered an urgent audit to assess availability of pillows and blankets in emergency departments and inpatient wards.

“I thank patients and their families for raising these concerns to ensure that South Australian patients can receive basic comforts when they are in hospital,” he said.

It comes as MPs were ejected 23 times in an hour during fiery parliamentary debate over a doomed no confidence against Mr Picton during the afternoon.

In a Liberal move targeting Labor’s election pledge to fix the ambulance ramping crisis, the traditional question time was abandoned for an hour’s debate over the no-confidence motion, which the Labor government used its numbers to defeat.

The no-confidence motion was the first faced by the Malinauskas government since securing power at the March 19 election last year.

In the year-old government’s most heated and turbulent parliamentary sitting, Speaker Dan Cregan ejected MPs 23 times from the 47-member lower house – some of them twice, from both sides, for up to 15 minutes.

Liberal health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn was the most senior of the double-ejected MPs and was left with only six minutes for her speech decrying Mr Picton.

Liberal health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn. Picture: Emma Brasier/File

Opposition Leader David Speirs demanded Mr Picton resign for “walking away from the government’s central election commitment to fix ramping”.

“There were no asterisks. There was no nuance. It was absolutely iron-clad. They said Labor will fix ramping. That’s what the South Australian people were promised at that election,” he told parliament.

”It was heard loud and clear – on thousands of election posters on highways and streets, in the suburbs and towns that make up this state.

“The Premier promised South Australians that he would fix ramping but ramping has gotten worse than ever under their leadership.”

South Australian Health Minister Chris Picton. Picture: David Mariuz

The lower house no-confidence motion, the first faced by the Malinauskas Labor government, was defeated along party lines, 26 to 12, with two former Liberal independents siding with Labor – Troy Bell and Fraser Ellis.

Mr Picton on Tuesday said Labor’s commitment had always been in reference to improving ambulance response times, rather than any reduction in the time ambulances spent waiting on hospital emergency department ramps.

“We are saying exactly the same today as we did before the election,” he said.

“We were clear during the election our plan to fix the ramping crisis which we clearly said was bringing ramping down so ambulances can respond to cases as they did back in 2018.

“Before the election Peter Malinauskas was repeatedly asked what was meant by ‘fix the ramping crisis’ and was clear that it meant reducing ramping to the point that we can ensure ambulances respond to priority cases as they did back in 2018.”

At the time, he said the state government had no target for reduction in the number of hours ambulances spent ramped outside hospitals.

Premier Peter Malinauskas emphatically declared his government's confidence in Mr Picton, arguing the motion demonstrated “an extraordinary level of desperation” by the Opposition.

He said this made clear “the contrast in substantive policy that exists between the politics of the Opposition and the plans of the Government”.

“We know that we are seeing results but there is a long way to go,” he told parliament

”There is absolutely no resiling from the fact that health is our number one priority and we have a policy, in stark contrast to the Leader of the Opposition.”