Flu cases in SA at highest rate in five years, as shift to new Royal Adelaide Hospital
FLU cases in South Australia are running at their highest rate in at least five years, raising new fears about the State Government’s plan to shift the Royal Adelaide Hospital in winter.
- Masterplan for RAH move highlights flu fears
- The massive job of shifting an entire city hospital
- RAH patients ‘at risk’ from health change
- Nowhere for rural families to stay at new RAH
FLU cases in South Australia are running at their highest rate in at least five years, raising new fears about the State Government’s plan to shift the Royal Adelaide Hospital in winter.
The Government is currently in testing phase at the new RAH, which is now fully constructed but must go through a period of safety examination and repair before taking patients.
The open is already more than a year behind schedule and no firm date to cut the ribbon has been determined.
The Government has said a move sometime in the middle of the year is possible, despite previously ruling out a winter shift because of extra demand from flu cases.
The Opposition on Sunday released SA Health figures showing that the number of flu cases reported in the year to date are almost double those seen last year.
The figures, from an SA Health disease notification, show 1106 flu cases reported so far this year.
It is similar to the amount recorded by this time in 2015. Ultimately, there were 15,659 flu cases that year.
Australian Medical Association SA President William Tam said the early figures were high, but “we don’t know just when the flu season will peak or how high that peak will be”.
“Flu season puts extra pressure on our hospitals and our health system so we can expect that when flu season is at its peak, our hospitals will be facing extra pressure,” he said.
“The date for the move ... has been a subject of questions and speculation for some time now. “It would have to be a very compelling case to allay those concerns.”
Director of RAH emergency medicine Tom Soulsby said the move “is going to be challenging whenever it happens” and the new hospital’s single rooms could help to stop flu spreading.
“It’s going to cause headaches for us at any time,” he said of the move.
“There are some real advantages to us being in the new RAH over winter.
“One of our problems at the moment is we don’t have enough individual rooms for patients when they have infectious diseases, such as the flu. In the new hospital, it’s all individual rooms.”
Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said the elevated flu data showed the Government “must pull back from its reckless plan for a winter opening of the new RAH”.
“Doctors and nurses working at the nRAH should not be put in the risky situation of trying to come to grips with operating in an unfamiliar clinical environment whilst coping with huge numbers of flu patients,” he said
“Moving to the nRAH will be the most complex logistical exercise the SA health system has ever undertaken and will come with significant risk to patients whenever it occurs.
“To overlay that difficult and stressful move for staff and patients with record levels of demand from patients suffering from influenza would be reckless.”
Mr Snelling said: “I take my advice from doctors and clinicians ... who work at the frontline, not from desperate, fearmongering politicians like Stephen Wade”.