Shadow Health Minister Peter Dutton Visits Sydney Adventist Hospital

Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing the Hon Peter Dutton MP and Paul Fletcher MP, Federal Member for Bradfield visited the Sydney Adventist Hospital yesterday at the invitation of SAH CEO Dr Leon Clark.

Mr Dutton, Mr Fletcher and Dr Clark discussed key issues affecting the hospital as well as taking a tour around the hospital to view the new developments at their Wahroonga site.

This was Mr Dutton’s first visit to the Sydney Adventist Hospital- affectionately known as ‘the San’. It is the largest private hospital in NSW - employing over 2,200 staff and treating over 55,000 inpatients and 175,000 outpatients annually.

‘The SAN is an extremely successful example of how private hospitals play a vital role in delivering health services and education across our community’, Mr Fletcher said.

‘Mr Dutton was able to see firsthand the vital work done at the San, including in areas such as Education and Research.

‘He held important discussions with the San’s CEO Dr Leon Clark and other members of the San’s management team – helping him to understand how the San delivers its services, and some of the challenges it faces’.

Mr Dutton said that the San is an example of how important private health is to our society.

‘My lasting impression of what I hope is the first of many visits here to the San is that they really are focussed on their patients and patient outcomes’, Mr Dutton said

‘I visit a lot of hospitals around the country and the master plan and the level of professionalism here at the San is really world leading. The management has a long history of being able to provide to the local community here’.

‘The Coalition’s plan at the next election will be to cut back on bureaucracy and redirect the money to frontline services, to doctors and nurses, so that we can get better patient outcomes. It is very much a back to basics approach.

‘Paul Fletcher has been keen for me to visit the hospital and is a very strong advocate for enhancing the services delivered at the hospital. I hope that if we are elected in September that we can provide assistance to the hospital to see further services rolled out’, Mr Dutton concluded.