Hospital EDs continue to overflow despite plan to ease the strain

EMERGENCY departments at major hospitals continue to overflow despite an action plan to ease the strain which includes leasing private beds, as the Opposition demands the Repat is kept open.

Ambulances ramp outside the emergency section of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital.

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HOSPITAL emergency departments continue to overflow despite the State Government’s latest efforts to deal with the gridlock which include sending nurses to some 000 calls.

Major hospitals including Flinders Medical Centre, Lyell McEwin Hospital and Modbury Hospital were all dealing with more people in their EDs than their capacity on Wednesday.

The situation at the $2.3 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital, which has had ambulances ramping for up to five hours, is still not being put on the SA Health website due to IT difficulties, despite repeated assurances it would be displayed.

IT issues continue to disrupt meal deliveries by the robotic “Rahbots”, according to patients who say they have waited hours for meals to arrive after ordering them on bedside consoles.

Officials say the Rahbots are working and the problem is with the ordering system.

Opposition Health spokesman Stephen Wade.

Pressure on hospitals comes as demand reaches record levels, which authorities say is driven in part by an ageing population, reluctance to see GPs who charge a gap and a horror flu season.

SA Health released figures showing demand at four major EDs has risen from an average of 693 presentations a day in 2013 to 776 a day at present.

SA Health is urging people to only go to EDs in genuine emergencies. Under the government’s latest plan, nurses will be sent to low level 000 calls and be given power to discharge some hospital patients to free up beds faster.

Since late Wednesday, 25 people who called 000 were referred to the Royal District Nursing Service or alternative care providers. The plan will also lease beds from the private sector — 15 private hospital beds were used on Wednesday. Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade called on the government not to close the Repatriation General Hospital in December as planned.

Emergency department overcapacity crisis at Adelaide hospitals on September 12, 2017.

“Taking another 230 beds out of Adelaide’s public hospital network at the very moment patients are left waiting for hours for treatment in EDs would represent an unacceptable increase in the risks to patients,” he said.

As the RAH “teething problems” continue, SA Salaried Medical Officers Association industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland said members preparing for surgery had complained that instruments had arrived late or the wrong instruments had been delivered, leading to delays in surgery.

However, claims on social media that sterile instruments were delivered by contractor Spotless on unsterile trays, leading to delays in elective surgery were refuted by Director Surgical Services Professor Guy Maddern as “untrue”.

“Instrument sterilisation is performed by highly trained staff in the Central Sterile Services Department, not Spotless, and we refute any claims that surgical instruments have not been appropriately sterilised,” he said.

“Like some areas of the new hospital, we have experienced some minor teething problems related to reprocessing large volumes of equipment being transferred from the old RAH.

“Staff are working through these issues as quickly as possible and there has been no impact to patient care or safety.”