Adelaide Hospital EDs clogged as 62 patients wait for beds

ADELAIDE’S public hospital EDs are operating over capacity and gridlocked by people treated but not given ward beds, including nine waiting more than 24 hours as at 3pm Monday.

• Ambos lose 70 hours as EDs overflow
• New 12-bed ‘discharge lounge’ to free up beds, ease ramping

ADELAIDE’S public hospital system is struggling to cope with demand, with emergency departments operating above capacity and ambulances ramping.

At 3pm Monday the seven hospitals’ ED were treating 295 patients despite having total capacity for 294, with another 78 waiting to be seen and 22 expected to arrive by ambulance.

EDs were clogged with patients who had been treated but who could not yet get a ward bed — 62 patients in total including nine who had been waiting for more than 24 hours.

Flinders Medical Centre was treating 63 people in its 53-capacity ED, Modbury was treating 33 people in its 29-capacity ED, and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital was treating 34 people in its 31-capacity ED.

Both the Lyell McEwin and the Royal Adelaide Hospital were just one patient below their respective capacities of 52 and 71 patients, but in both major hospitals the average wait to be seen was more than an hour.

The gridlock follows Health Minister Stephen Wade’s announcement on Friday of SA Health’s winter demand strategy which is seeing the opening of 48 extra ward beds in metropolitan hospitals.

“We are introducing 48 extra beds in the system — 11 at the Lyell McEwin Hospital, 25 at Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre, and a 12-bed, dedicated Extended Emergency Care Unit at Flinders Medical Centre — to increase capacity this winter,” Mr Wade said.

“Winter is always a busy and testing time for our hospitals and for all our staff, more so this year as a result of the former Labor Government’s decision to close the Repat.

“This is going to be a challenging winter but each Local Health Network, along with SA Ambulance Service, have developed their own local plans for managing expected increases in demand — local solutions to local problems.”

Other winter management strategies include:

TEMPORARY postponement of non-urgent overnight elective surgery at peak periods;

USING peri-urban and country hospitals to enable clinically suitable patients to receive ongoing care;

ENSURING those most at risk have access to influenza vaccinations;

ENABLING faster diagnosis and treatment for patients with respiratory viruses.

SA Health is also looking at the option of mobile x-ray services so patients in aged care can have diagnostic services in their facility, rather than travel to an emergency department.

The government previously announced an additional 10 general mental health beds will be opened at the RAH, in what was supposed to be a secure psychiatric unit but which has not opened due to problems with the duress alarms.