Doctors union labels Lyell McEwin Hospital a ‘disaster’ amid ramping

Chronic ramping blew out waiting times by 10 hours at the Lyell McEwin hospital on Monday, with the doctors’ union calling it closer to a disaster than a health service.

The Lyell McEwin Hospital has been labelled a “disaster” after an investigation by the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA).

Stressed clinicians called for a legally sanctioned inspection by their union on Monday amid ambulance ramping which continued into Tuesday.

It followed complaints the hospital had 442 patients in beds despite an official capacity of 366.

It also follows mounting pressure with a chronically full ED, average wait times blowing out beyond 10 hours on occasions and ambulance ramping.

The inspection found the waiting room “heaving at the seams”.

Advice just in - LMH ED “waiting room heaving at the seams” - “no plans to enable decompression of hospital” “no link up across hospitals until 4” “distressed clinicians because of barriers to timely patient care” - waiting for @SAHealth to activate some immediate solutions 😡 pic.twitter.com/KWBSMWlUWI

— SASMOA (@sasmoa4doctors) November 13, 2023

The hospital’s ED was at Code White on Tuesday – operating above capacity.

SASMOA chief industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland was appalled at the situation at the northern suburbs flagship hospital, which follows the election of the Labor government promising to “fix” the health system.

“It was more like a disaster management scenario rather than a functional health service,” Ms Mulholland told The Advertiser.

“It really is not acceptable that doctors can’t do their job and provide health care in a timely manner to seriously unwell patients because there are insufficient hospital beds and medical resources for the community.

“SASMOA and its members have lost patience and confidence in the health administrators.

“We need beds, we need workforce, and we need a sustainable health service model that ensures patients receive timely care.

SASMOA chief industrial officer, Bernadette Mulholland. Picture: Matt Loxton.

“It is critical that the health bureaucracy supports frontline health workers rather than making their roles more difficult.

“However, this will require a significant shift in attitude and behaviour by SA Health and senior bureaucrats and acknowledgment of their role in contributing to the problems facing our health system.”

Ms Mulholland said the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network managers “were not visible or even on site at the hospital” to see the problems for themselves.

The Opposition noted the beleaguered hospital has brought back mask mandates as Covid cases soar.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said latest figures showed last month was the hospital’s worst month of ramping on record – with October reaching 868 hours lost.

“Peter Malinauskas’ number one election commitment was to fix ramping – yet what we’re seeing at Lyell McEwin Hospital shows it’s worse than ever under Labor,” Mrs Hurn said.

Ambulances ramped at Lyell McEwin Hospital. Picture SASMOA

“When South Australians voted for Labor to ‘fix ramping’, they never anticipated the situation would reach the unprecedented levels we saw at the Lyell McEwin just last month.

“Extreme overcrowding in our emergency departments isn’t just distressing for staff, but it potentially puts patient safety at risk as well.

“The pleas from SASMOA for the Malinauskas Labor Government to activate immediate solutions and provide some relief for those at the Lyell McEwin Hospital simply can’t be ignored.

“Hospital staff are being pushed to their absolute limits and we fear South Australia’s health system isn’t going to be able to endure this kind of pressure for much longer.”

Health Minister Chris Picton accused the Liberal Party of doing nothing to increase inpatient capacity at the Lyell McEwin Hospital while in government.

“The Liberals’ crocodile tears compare to their record of making hundreds of frontline nurses redundant,” he said.

“We on the other hand made an election pledge to build 24 new inpatient beds at the Lyell McEwin and have since doubled that commitment – to build 48 new inpatient beds – because we have seen how much that extra capacity is needed.

“We’re also increasing capacity in the ED, contracting new aged care beds, boosting staffing to increase discharges and have purchased land next to the hospital to cater for future growth.”

Northern Adelaide Local Health Network acting chief executive Natalia Hubczenko said the network is “doing everything we can to bring more beds online as quickly as possible”.

She said the hospital had been busy with low-acutity arrivals, with more than 25 per cent of presentations being for non-urgent or semi-urgent care.

“To help ease some of this demand, we are actively working on a number of measures including more use of the SA Virtual Care Service, maximising access to the My Home Hospital service and redirecting low-acuity patients to other services including the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Elizabeth which opened last month,” she said.

“As always, our patients are treated according to clinical need with the sickest patients being treated first. We’ve freed up 14 beds for inpatients as part of our $58m Emergency Department expansion and created 24 beds in partnership with ACH Group to transition those awaiting care placements or home modifications before discharge.”