Country towns lose emergency departments
Six country towns have lost emergency departments as part of the crackdown on coronavirus and more may follow.
Adelaide Hills
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The emergency departments in at least six country hospitals are closing because the state government believes it will reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection passing onto aged care facilities attached to the centres.
Emergency departments at the Gumeracha District Soldiers Memorial Hospital as well as at Strathalbyn, Kapunda, Eudunda and Mount Pleasant were closed down at midnight on Thursday. The emergency department at the Penola War Memorial Hospital will close on Monday. SA Health said it was possible further closures would occur at more regional hospitals.
Rural Doctors Association SA president Peter Rischbieth said he believed a solution could have been found that would have kept the emergency departments open and was disappointed in the lack of consultation from the state government, with some hospitals only being given seven hours’ notice that the closures were happening.
“It’s a decision being made without giving clinicians a voice,’’ he said. Dr Rischbieth said many patients would now face much longer journeys before they could receive treatment.
SA Health said patients would be diverted to Gawler, Tanunda, Angaston, Modbury and Mount Barker.
All the closed EDs have aged care facilities attached and in a statement SA Health said: “It is critical we protect the most vulnerable in our community during the COVID-19 pandemic and this necessary measure ensures the elderly with co-morbidities or low immunity are further safeguarded.’’
In addition, SA Health said all visitors to aged care facilities in the region would now be screened for COVID-19 systems before being allowed to enter.
Dr Rischbieth said he was still hopeful the Kapunda Hospital ED would be allowed to remain open as it covered such a large area, taking in Morgan, Burra and Riverton. Obstetric services at Kapunda will be permitted to continue.
He also questioned whether the state government would be increasing resources at the hospitals to which patients were now being diverted.
“They are doing this without working through the implications of what it means to doctors at other hospitals,’’ he said.
He said he was also worried that these closures would not be “temporary’’ as the government has stated but would instead sound the death knell for emergency departments at these hospitals.
“We are very worried about that,’’ he said. “We would like a commitment from SA Health, the chief executive and the minister that these EDs will re-open when all this is finished.’’
