Flinders Medical Centre emergency department loses 12 beds, despite chronic ramping
A major hospital was touted as having the biggest emergency department in the state after an upgrade, but 12 of its ED beds have now been reclassified.
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Flinders Medical Centre has cut its Emergency Department by 12 beds despite chronic ramping.
Expansion of FMC’s ED to the biggest in the state was a flagship initiative of the former Liberal government’s $86m Southern Health Expansion Plan.
However in June The Advertiser revealed the ED had been secretly cut from 71 beds to 59, despite official figures showing it still had 71.
This meant the ED regularly showed it had extra capacity due to these phantom beds, despite it often actually being full beyond capacity.
Frustrated doctors referred to them as “virtual beds”.
SA Health subsequently added an online note to official figures saying a trial was under way – but continued to list 71 beds as available.
A Southern Adelaide Local Health Network spokesman has told The Advertiser the public data now will belatedly show the Flinders ED only having 59 beds but insisted overall bed numbers remain the same.
A statement says the online ED dashboard will be updated “to reflect changes to bed configuration at FMC following the conclusion of a trial aimed at improving patient waiting times.
“The dashboard will show the actual ED bed number of 59 instead of 71.
“During the trial, 12 Emergency Extended Care Unit beds were converted to inpatient beds which means people needing an inpatient stay can move more quickly into the appropriate bed, rather than waiting in an ED cubicle.
“There has been no reduction of total bed capacity at FMC as a result of this change.”
It means the FMC ED has lost its title as SA’s largest and is again behind the Royal Adelaide Hospital with its 69 spaces.
Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said the health system “cannot afford to lose a single ED bed.”
“Labor’s decision to cut ED beds flies in the face of their election promises, and will come as a real shock to South Australians,” she said.
“Peter Malinauskas needs to explain how cutting emergency department beds will help deliver on his promise to fix ramping.”
Health Minister Chris Picton said the FMC move followed recommendations of the Monaghan report which had been “scathing” of changes made by the previous government.
“Importantly, there has been no reduction to the number of beds open at Flinders Medical Centre,” he said.
“Converting the 12 beds back into inpatient beds will help improve flow through the Emergency Department and increase inpatient capacity.”
FMC ED is SA’s busiest with more than 90,000 presentations a year and a recent investigation by the SA Salaried Medical Officers Association found patients being treated in chairs and allegations staff were being pressured to unload patients from ambulances and leave them in corridors.
Ramping data for August is yet to be released. Time lost in ramping for July was 3647 hours while in June it was a record 3854 hours.
At 2pm Sunday the 59-capacity FMC ED had 93 people being treated or waiting to be seen.
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