Doctors want additional building for outpatients next to new Royal Adelaide Hospital
DOCTORS will ask for an entire new building near or on the new RAH site to cater for outpatient services in a bid to fix the hospital’s major appointment crisis.
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DOCTORS will ask the State Government to build an entire new space near or on the new Royal Adelaide Hospital site to cater for outpatient services in a bid to fix the hospital’s major appointment crisis.
Health Minister Jack Snelling on Thursday told Parliament he was not ruling out clinicians treating outpatients at the new RAH after hours as a potential way to solve the huge design flaw — a move doctors oppose.
The drastic and costly idea to build additional space follows warnings from 14 RAH department heads — as revealed in The Advertiser on Saturday — that the $2.3 billion hospital’s outpatient services were “woefully inadequate and not fit for purpose”, meaning that tens of thousands of appointments will have to be made at other hospitals.
SA Salaried Medical Officers Association president Dr David Pope said the union was meeting with Central Adelaide Local Health Network staff on Friday to discuss their concerns.
“Because there’s insufficient space at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital they (the State Government) will have to build some other space very close by so clinicians can fulfil their duties in the hospital but also to outpatients,” he said.
“(It could be) another building either on that site or across the road but it would have to be very close because the clinicians that deliver outpatient services are also responsible for patients on the wards.”
Dr Pope said opening outpatient services out of hours would not solve the crisis because there was not enough staff to provide the high-level, expert care needed.
“These specialists are highly specialised, you could count these people on two or three fingers (so) if there’s a person that is needed in the emergency department and outpatient clinic, it’s the same person,” he said.
“You’d have to go out recruiting worldwide and that would be expensive ... it would cost a lot to employ a large number of extra people.
“Clearly it (the issue) needs to be solved and solved quickly if there’s going to be a September 5 opening date because for patients, it means they won’t be able to access the services they need at all.”
Mr Snelling told parliament: “I have asked the department to look at having after-hours outpatient appointments available at the hospital.
“I know that for many patients seeking to have an outpatient appointment, having to take time off from work, find people to look after children and so on can be very, very inconvenient and very disruptive to both work and family life”.
Mr Snelling said building a new outpatient space at the new RAH was “not under consideration”.