John Hill, the State Health Minister, said he should have received an update on the revised Country Health Care plan last week.

Mr Hill would have been briefed by the taskforce established to consider improvements for the unpopular plan.

The taskforce has been considering thousands of submissions in response to the plan that was unveiled in June.

“We won’t impose a health care plan on country South Australians that they don’t want,” Mr Hill said when the official consultation period on the plan closed at the end of July.

“We have listened to rural South Australians and will act on the concerns they’ve raised.

“It’s quite clear that we will need to rethink our strategy for small hospitals, given the strong support they have in rural communities.”

Ivan Venning, the Member for Schubert, labelled the State Labor Government’s attempt to cut back health services in the country a failure.

Mr Venning also wanted to know how much was spent on the promotion of the plan, which is now being revised.

“How much did the government spend trying to ‘sell’ its Country Health Care Plan,” Ivan asked.

“The taxpayer funded advertising was very expensive.

“I believe it would run into the millions - if that was shared around all the country hospitals, it would have been money well spent and produced outcomes of real tangible value.”

Mr Venning congratulated country people on a sustained campaign against the Health Plan, but warned everyone to be wary when the revised plan is released.