Elective surgery ‘pause’ almost ends as South Australian EDs continue to be swamped in winter

The “pause” on most elective surgery has been lifted despite relentless pressure continuing to mount on hospital emergency departments.

Restrictions are being lifted on about 90 per cent of elective surgeries as state governments ask the federal government for more hospital cash.

While multi-day, non-urgent elective surgery remains on hold in metropolitan hospitals, restrictions on same day and 23-hour surgery lift from 5pm on Friday — but with no such surgery due on the weekend the work will resume from Monday.

Combined with the lifting last week of restrictions on elective procedures in country hospitals, it means about 90 per cent of restrictions are lifted.

Health Minister Chris Picton said the statewide Code Yellow — an internal emergency in SA Health — remains in force to ensure hospitals work as efficiently as possible.

“This is a big lift,” he said. “Some 90 per cent of restrictions are being lifted across the metropolitan and peri-urban area on same day and overnight elective surgery.”

Mr Picton thanked the health workforce and said private hospitals are being used to try to cut the backlog caused by two weeks of cancellations.

Chris Picton, Minister for Health and Wellbeing said this is a big lift.

As of Thursday there were 21,351 patients on the elective surgery list recorded as ready for surgery, 4196 who were overdue and another 57 postponements pushing the total cancelled in the past fortnight beyond 500.

A meeting of state and territory health ministers in Adelaide also resolved to ask the federal government for more money for public hospitals, noting demand means they are “going backwards.”

The ministers also want a discussion about ways to improve aged care and NDIS placements to get such patients discharged faster.

They noted relations with federal Health Minister Mark Butler are good, but more discussions are needed.

Mr Picton said about 200 people — “the equivalent of a modern hospital” — are medically fit to be discharged but are waiting on aged care places.

The meeting also questioned why chiropractors are dropping restrictions on spinal manipulation on children under 10 — they are seeking an explanation from the regulatory body and are asking for the ban to be reimposed.

The lift on most elective surgery comes despite hospitals’ emergency departments continuing to struggle with demand, partly due to being clogged with people who have been treated and are waiting on appropriate beds.

At 11.30am on Friday most EDs were full, such as the flagship $2.7bn Royal Adelaide Hospital where clinicians were treating 80 patients in the 69-capacity ED.

More than half of these were classified as having been treated and were waiting for an appropriate bed — 12 of them waiting for more than 12 hours — creating a gridlock for new arrivals who faced an average wait of almost three hours to be seen.

Across the system there were 113 patients warehoused in EDs who had been treated but were waiting for appropriate beds, including aged care, NDIS and mental health patients.

Ambulances parked at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Picture: NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

One glimmer of good news was a drop in Covid number, for the first time in two months.

The past week recorded 1666 cases, down from 2429 the previous week following a surge of cases since April.

There were 28 new Covid related deaths notified to the Department for Health and Wellbeing, which receives data from Births, Deaths and Marriages monthly.

There were 4322 influenza cases listed so far this year, compared to 5441 cases at the same time last year which went on to record 22,408 cases.

The halt on most elective surgery to free up ward beds and ease pressure on EDs was announced on May 30.

Deputy Opposition leader John Gardner said patients overdue for elective surgery procedures as at June 30 across the metropolitan area have increased from 2309 last year to more than 4000 now.

“Even before Labor’s failure to properly prepare for winter and an increased demand on the health system, these figures show that the overdue waiting list for elective surgery was already out of control,” Mr Gardner said.

“Peter Malinauskas owes South Australians an explanation, and an apology.”