About 100 surgeries cancelled in SA as public holiday for Queen causes major disruption

Patients whose elective surgery has been cancelled due to Thursday’s public holiday won’t be given a “definitive timeline” for when their operations will go ahead.

A huge disruption to elective surgery will see about 100 patients’ scheduled appointments cancelled on Thursday’s national day of mourning for the Queen.

A statement from SA Health revealed only a third of elective surgeries scheduled for the public holiday are proceeding.

On an average day across the state, about 150 elective surgeries take place in South Australia’s public hospitals – which means 100 won’t go ahead.

The revelation comes just three days after the department stated that a number of surgeons have chosen to work to ensure scheduled elective surgeries could take place across metropolitan and regional hospitals.

Health minister Chris Picton said he regrets the impact the public holiday would have on some patients.

“We’re glad that some will be able to happen and for those who can’t we’ll reschedule it as soon as possible,” he said.

But Mr Picton was unable to provide a definitive timeline of when patients will be booked back in.

“If it is an urgent operation, we are trying to prioritise those for Thursday ... for all those other people, we’ll be trying to schedule that for as soon as possible,” he said. 

“We are trying to organise these as a priority.”

The health minister said SA Health had “put the call out” for surgeons and healthcare workers to work on Thursday’s impromptu public holiday.

Acting deputy chief executive officer Helen Chalmers said SA Health are now in the process of notifying people to confirm the status of their procedure.

Only a third of elective surgeries scheduled for the public holiday are proceeding. Picture: iStock

“Our hospitals have worked hard this week to ensure we were able to keep as many scheduled appointments as possible,” she said.

“We apologise for any disruption this may cause patients who need to be rescheduled and assure them that their appointments will be rebooked as a priority.”

She urged people who have any questions to contact their clinic.

“People with questions regarding their upcoming surgery are encouraged to contact their clinic.”

Last week Premier Peter Malinauskas warned there would be unavoidable disruption to elective surgery and for working parents because of the public holiday on Thursday.

Mr Malinauskas said the federal government-imposed holiday and national day of mourning for all states and territories was an appropriate commemoration of Queen Elizabeth II, but would cause problems, especially for working parents.

Mr Malinauskas said the extent of disruption in hospitals had not yet been evident, but the public health workforce of 40,000 would be impacted most by parents now having to find alternatives to school for their children.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said it was shocking to hear two-thirds of elective surgery would be cancelled on Thursday.

“Cancelling two-thirds of elective surgery on Thursday provides an enormous headache for patients and also provides an enormous headache for our health system,” she said.