Older person’s mental health, brain and spinal care, at centre of new plan to reopen Repat Hospital as ‘genuine health precinct’ for SA

Clinicians have welcomed plans to reopen the Repat, but say they will seek finer detail to ensure new services ease the squeeze across the broader health network.

• 2018: SA Government reveals original Repat Hospital plans
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Clinicians have welcomed plans to reopen the Repat, but say they will seek finer detail to ensure new services ease the squeeze across the broader health network.

Premier Steven Marshall and Health and Wellbeing Minister Stephen Wade on Sunday revealed a long-awaited masterplan for the site, which was closed under the former Labor government’s “Transforming Health” reforms.

Key features are a focus on services for older people with mental care needs as well as “state of the art” brain and spinal rehabilitation treatment.

The plan has been the subject of lengthy community consultation and is now being released for further “public comment” before more precise costs and uses are revealed.

The concept plan includes rehabilitation treatment across the northern half of the site, as the southwestern quarter is used for mental health and dementia treatment.

Wards in the south have been earmarked for care transition, as a “development zone” in the east is considered for uses including veterans and eating disorder services.

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A central district in the site is for surgery and procedural functions, adjacent to a “town square” with outdoor space and a wheelchair gymnasium.

Mr Wade would not reveal the cost of the plan, but said it was already fully budgeted.

Mr Marshall said the Government was “super excited” about the Repat’s future, which was redesigned after a “very significant public campaign” that rejected plans to “sell off this site for housing”.

What the reactivated Repat will look like

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“The people of SA spoke, the veterans of SA in particular spoke with their incredible petition to the Parliament.

We’ve been true to our word. (We will) keep this as a genuine health precinct.”

Mr Wade said 50 beds were for brain and spinal treatment, 60 in dementia and that Ward 18 would be a “specialist facility” for those with the most serious behavioural symptoms.

“We had significant interest in the expressions of interest process in providing surgical services on this site,” he said.

Mr Wade said technical challenges remained in using areas which were abandoned.

“That issue still remains with us, in terms of exploring what’s possible in relation to surgery,” he said. “There was damage done to the operating theatres. “The rest of the site, in many respects, was left dormant and so there will be costs of reactivating the site.”

Mr Wade said a top priority would be getting Ward 18 back up and running as there was a shortage of beds for acute mental health care in the wake of the Oakden disaster.

Australian Medical Association president William Tam told The Advertiser that many mental health patients with very challenging behavioural symptoms were being treated in standard hospitals since the Oakden closure, and an 18-bed specialist facility now planned for the Repat was crucial.

Repat Concept Master Plan. Picture: Supplied

“That partially fills the gap,” he said. “The AMA has called for three centres to replace the beds (at Oakden). This goes some way to addressing that.

“Presumedly, at some point, the Government will announce a facility in the north or centre of Adelaide to accommodate these patients, because there is still a shortfall.”

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation SA chief executive Elizabeth Dabars welcomed the masterplan and said she would seek “finer detail” in coming days.

Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton said Mr Marshall had delivered “one year of talk” about the Repat, but still offered “no details, no budget, no time frames” on when it would be fully opened.

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