South Australia's incoming health minister Chris Picton says the jobs of departmental chief executives will be up for discussion over coming days.
Mr Picton is expected to be sworn in on Thursday, along with the rest of the new Labor cabinet.
He told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning the decision about whether to reappoint chief executives was up to Premier Peter Malinauskas, who will be considering his options.
Mr Malinauskas spoke alongside SA Health chief executive Chris McGowan yesterday, revealing elective surgery cancellations had started due to an expected COVID-19 case surge on Friday but were not announced.
Mr McGowan said no announcement was made because the government was in caretaker mode ahead of the election.
He claimed the cancellations only applied at one hospital.
Mr Picton would not say if Dr McGowan would remain in his job.
He was appointed by the Liberals in May 2018, shortly after they were elected.
"We'll have discussions over the course of coming days in relation to that," Mr Picton said.
"As I said, [I] haven't yet been even sworn in as health minister, but we'll have those discussions and there'll be considerations in due course."
He said he had already "a number" of meetings with Dr McGowan and other health executives.
"We haven't got to the point of that consideration of whether there would be a change, but I certainly welcome my discussions so far with Chris McGowan and the other executives of the team, as well as of course Nicola Spurrier to get that information from them."
Mr Picton also revealed it was the Royal Adelaide Hospital that cancelled some elective surgeries, along with a smaller number at the Flinders Medical Centre.
Former ministers' seats in doubt
Former premier Steven Marshall's seat of Dunstan in Adelaide's east remains too close to call.
With 60 per cent of the vote counted, Mr Marshall trails by 11 votes on the two-party preferred count.
As it stands, there has been a 7.5 per cent swing towards Labor.
Five other seats remain in doubt, including former education minister John Gardner's seat of Morialta and former industry and skills minister David Pisoni's seat of Unley.
ABC election analyst Antony Green yesterday called Flinders and Heysen as wins for the Liberals.
Liberal Party candidate and Tumby Bay Mayor Sam Telfer beat independent Liz Habermann in the Eyre Peninsula seat of Flinders, while Josh Teague held onto his Adelaide Hills seat of Heysen.
Green expects Mr Marshall to pull ahead in Dunstan and Labor to win Waite from independent Sam Duluk.
