Building a Bigger Health System
We still have a lot of work to do, but we have come a very long way since being elected. The 2025-26 State Budget reaffirmed our commitment to building a bigger health system, with an additional $1.9 billion in funding, bringing our total investment in health to $9 billion over the past four years. Here’s what that means in real terms for our community:
We’ve increased our commitment to deliver 300 new beds to over 600 new beds, including 132 mental health beds
We’ve employed almost 2,800 additional fulltime equivalent nurses, doctors, ambos and allied health workers above attrition since our election in 2022. That’s five times more nurses and six times more doctors than we committed to during the 2022 State Election.
We’ve upgraded, rebuilt or newly built 24 ambulance stations and a built a brand-new SA Ambulance Service Operations Centre in Adelaide.
The Malinauskas Labor Government is pulling every lever we can to build a bigger health system and address ramping in our hospitals.
When we came to government, the situation was dire with Priority 1 ambulances only arriving on time for 1 in 3 South Australians. Now, it’s more than 2 in 3.
Our $400 million redevelopment of Flinders Medical Centre in partnership with the Federal Government is well underway.
Construction has begun on a new Acute Services building expected to open early 2028, while the redevelopment of the Margaret Tobin Centre including a new 12-bed Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit is expected to open late 2025.
This project will deliver 160 extra beds across Flinders Medical Centre and the Repat!
In December 2025, we opened the Marion Medicare Mental Health Kids Hub in partnership with the Commonwealth Government.
Located at the Marion GP Plus Health Care Centre with outreach services at Aldinga, this service provides free mental health and wellbeing support for children up to 12 years of age - without the need for a formal referral or diagnosis.
Making this a free, walk-in service ensures every child, regardless of their circumstances, can get the support they need, when they need it!
In the 2025-26 State Budget, we expanded the Mental Health Co-Responder Program right across Adelaide!
This program pairs a mental health clinician with police officers responding to mental health Triple Zero call outs, preventing more than 2,400 emergency department presentations during trials in the central and northern Adelaide local health networks.
Our State Budget secures funding of this program over the next five years, expanding its reach into the southern suburbs to ensure people in crisis right across Adelaide receive the right care at the right time.
In October 2024, we opened 26 new beds at the Repat Health Precinct.
This new Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM) Unit at the Repat will provide vital services for older patients, support patient flow from busy emergency departments and help get patients home faster
In September 2024, we opened the new Edwardstown Ambulance Station.
Located at the Repat Health Precinct, this new station houses 16 paramedics, 12 Emergency Support Service ambulance officers, and the capacity to garage 4 ambulances and 2 light fleet vehicles – all of which now have greater access to Daws Road and Goodwood Road to better service our community!
We’re also building a new ambulance station in Marion!
In March 2024, we began supporting a new 24/7 pharmacy in Clovelly Park.
Located at 1156 - 1158 South Road, Clovelly Park, this Chemist Warehouse was selected through a competitive tender process. It now operates around the clock, every day of the year, with a pharmacist on staff 24 hours a day so local residents and families know they can always speak to a health professional.
Since being elected, the Malinauskas Labor Government has also worked with pharmacists to provide mental health first aid training, expand access to palliative care medicines, expand vaccinations pharmacists can administer, and provide UTI medications and the oral contraceptive pill.